As the Danger Games begin, China shows true color: red
(AP)
BEIJING -- It didn't take long for the red hammer to drop, for the American way of life to be stonewalled, silenced and choked like a pigeon in the smog. How is China's "renaissance" in the world ever to be taken seriously when Joey Cheek, the U.S. speedskater turned human-rights activist, is barred from the Olympics by Chinese authorities because he wants to speak out and bring peace to Sudan?
They didn't merely mute Cheek regarding the violence in war-ravaged Darfur, the unspeakable genocide, the 400,000 people who've been murdered. No, they flat out revoked his visa and told him he wasn't welcome in their country for the Summer Games, just two years after he won a gold medal within the very Olympic movement that China is so vigorously embracing. They can show offf their gleaming new skyscrapers, their immaculate stadium, their luxury shopping malls with all the pricey stores seen on Rodeo Drive. They can embrace capitalism and claim to be moving forward while joining in the quintessentially American hype of the Games beginning on 8/8/08 at 8:08 p.m.
But nothing has changed here. All you have to do is spend an oppressively hot morning in Tiananmen Square to know that. Across a busy city street is the larger-than-life portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, hanging above the entrance to the Forbidden City. One by one, Chinese people line up in the square to snap pictures of the iconic Mao -- parents with kids, young couples in love -- all viewing the experience as part-amusement park, part-religion. Thirty-two years after his death, Mao remains a rock star in the capital, with tens of thousands congregating in this massive public area to celebrate their way of life.
Communism.
So much for opening the window to a new China. It's still shut, locked down and hermetically sealed, and if we don't like the government's close ties with Sudan -- why would they crack down on Darfur when they buy oil from the Sudanese? -- they just might kick us out and not let us order macchiatos at Starbucks.
"I didn't see it coming," said Cheek, who had planned to spend two weeks doing his humanitarian work in Beijing. "I figured once they gave me a visa, I wouldn't imagine they wouldn't allow me to come in later. That was a big shock. I wasn't expecting to get a call the evening before I was leaving for Beijing."
All of which triggers more damning questions about why the International Olympic Committee allowed Beijing to host the Games. As it is, the specter of terrorism hangs as ominously as the chalky, polluted air, with a Chinese Islamic group posting a video only hours before the Opening Ceremony that threatened an attack on the Games, right down to a burning Olympics logo and image of a Games venue being exploded. Intertwined with the fear is the presence of President Bush, who will attend the Ceremony amid possibly the most intense security initiative at a world event. With the Cheek episode representing another example of China preferring to censor opposing views than allow freedoms, Bush surely exacerbated tensions by condemning the host nation for its horrid human rights record.
"The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings," Bush said. "We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labor rights not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential."
To which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang replied, in a statement translated into English by the Associated Press: "The Chinese government puts people first, and is dedicated to maintaining and promoting its citizens' basic rights and freedom. Chinese citizens have freedom of religion. These are indisputable facts. As for the divergence on human rights and religions, we always advocate both sides talk from a basis of mutual respect and equality, to enhance understanding and diminish divergence and enlarge mutual consensus. We firmly oppose any words or acts that interfere in other countries' internal affairs, using human rights and religion and other issues."
From that, I don't detect any willingness to have a more open society. But, hey, the new Nike store on Wangfujing Avenue has some slick USA and China swag.
So as the most politically charged Games of our lives begin, we only can wonder what drama awaits at tonight's ceremony. The IOC, which is based in Switzerland, is acting with wishy-washy neutrality when it comes to Cheek. The committee is quick to note that rules prohibit athletes from political protests and statements at the Olympics, which could prompt private boycotts by any number of athletes tonight. Meaning, watch the Americans very closer.
How many will show up? Who will show up? What statements, sneaky or obvious, might they have planned as they walk into the immaculate Bird's Nest s tadium? Much like the IOC, the U.S. Olympic Committee took a neutral stance on Cheek via chief executive officer Jim Scherr, who said of the visa yank, "We think that it is unfortunate. But it's between this government and Joey as a private citizen." The bureaucrats are just trying to make it through the Games alive, it seems.
Curiously, in the wake of the flap, the U.S. team elected a Darfur refugee to bear its flag. Born in Sudan, Lopez Lomong is a 1,500-meter distance runner who spent 10 years in a refugee camp after he was kidnapped at age six. "This is another amazing step for me in celebrating being an American," said Lomong, who became a U.S. citizen last year. "Seeing my fellow Americans coming behind me and supporting me will be a great honor." It's a powerful statement about freedom and our way of life. But just the same, aren't the Americans playing China's political game when they could be ignoring it?
At least they've taken a stance in Beijing, which is more than we can say for LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. For months, we've heard both NBA superstars vow to speak out against China at the Games. "Together, we have the power to change the world," Bryant said last year in a Darfur-related public service announcement. James was even stronger, saying earlier this year, "People should understand that human rights and people's lives are in jeopardy. We're not talking about contracts here. We're not talking abo ut money."
But now that they're in Beijing, in the middle of the storm, both are being much more careful. Thursday, Bryant said he has nothing to add. And James told Yahoo! Sports, "One thing you can't do is confuse sports and politics. I think the political guys are going to do what they need to do, that's their job. We are here to concentrate on a gold medal."
The directive comes from on high, I'm sure. In a way, that is censorship. Wonder what Cheek would think of that? "I don't begrudge (China) the Olympics, I think they'll do well with them. But there are so many of their government's policies that I find repulsive, especially for athletes who have no intention but to help someone else," he told the AP. "Of course, I would have liked to have been there, advocating for a peaceful resolution. But we'll figure something out."
Unlike China, which can't escape itself.
