As Olympics approach, China gets defensive

As Olympics approach, China gets defensive

China is highly incensed about the protests that greeted the Olympic torch as it made its way through some of more than 20 cities on its way to Beijing.

And China has been even more unhappy about some of the bad press it has been getting in advance of the Games.

So it’s doing two things, one ironic and one that was easily predicted.

Ironically, it is turning to the Internet — the same Internet it censors at home — to mount attacks on its Western critics.

The Chinese government accused CNN commentator Jack Cafferty of delivering a “vicious” commentary on China when he said the United States imports “their junk with the lead paint” and its “poisoned pet food” while losing factory jobs to China, a country run by “the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.” A government spokesman demanded that CNN and Cafferty, “take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people,”

Angry Chinese immigrants in the United States launched an online petition drive to protest Cafferty’s remarks and a similar anti-CNN Internet campaign was launched in China.

Student under fire

Chinese students in the United States even launched a vicious cyber attack on one of their own, a student at Duke University who tried to get pro-China and Free Tibet protestors on campus to discuss their differences face-to-face. Her name, her e-mail address and her student ID number were posted on the Web, as well as the identity of her parents back in China. She received Internet death threats and her parents have gone into hiding.

The unsurprising reaction to unfavorable publicity is China’s attempt to intimidate and hamper the press. The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said foreign journalists have been threatened for reporting on the disturbances during the torch relay around the world and the unrest in Tibet Aidan White, general secretary of the federation, led a 10-member mission to Beijing this week to urge, “China to deliver on its promises of ending repression of journalists in the country and to open itself to independent media coverage around the Games.”

“I would like to stress here the Chinese government would like to continue to protect the lawful rights and interests of the foreign journalists according to law,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said before the delegation arrived. Note that the government would like to protect — not it will protect — the lawful rights of journalists. And remember that the government is free at any time to define, redefine and interpret what kind of coverage is lawful.

This is not what the International Olympics Committee bargained for when it awarded the Games to China.

Turnabout, not fair play

In its naivete, the committee thought that the Olympics would change China. It did not apparently consider the possibility that China would try to change the culture of the Games.

And it apparently never did the math to realize that the games would be coming to China just a year short of the 50th anniversary of the 1959 uprising in Tibet that resulted in the Dalai Lama — Tibet’s spiritual leader — fleeing into exile. China brutally crushed demonstrations in Tibet last month marking the 49th anniversary of the uprising.

Now China is attempting to use the criticism directed toward it to inflame nationalism among its people at home and abroad, and it is willing to take aim at almost anyone it thinks will serve its purposes. For instance, the state Xinhua news agency called U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “disgusting” and said she “is detested by the Chinese people ... [for her] stubborn anti-China sentiment and uneasiness about China’s peaceful rise.” Did we mention that she had the temerity to meet with the Dalai Lama?

Some European leaders are warning China that they might boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in August unless China begins to play the traditionally open role expected of Olympic hosts.

The Bush strategy

So far, the Bush administration is taking a less confrontational approach. Bush has said he doesn’t view the Olympics as a political event, a view apparently not shared by China. His national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, went so far as to say it would be a “cop-out” for countries to skip the opening ceremonies. The United States, he suggested, is taking the tougher road, pursuing quiet diplomacy aimed at bringing China around.

“If other countries are concerned about Tibet, they ought to do what we are doing through quiet diplomacy, send the message clearly to the Chinese that this is an opportunity with the whole world watching, to show that they take into account and are determined to treat their citizens with dignity and respect. They would put pressure on the Chinese authorities quietly to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama and use this as an opportunity to help resolve that situation,” Hadley said.

Somehow we think the only quiet diplomacy that might get the attention of China is if President Bush quietly put the Dalai Lama on Air Forced One for the flight to Beijing August 8 and walked with him arm-in-arm down the stairs and onto the tarmac.

That would be an event of truly Olympic proportions.