Why we must boycott the olympics

Over at HuffPo, someone named Tom Doctoroff (who he?) posted a screedarguing against offending the Chinese people by boycotting the Olympic Games Chinese propaganda exercise. He went on and on about how we need to see things from their perspective (Slavery good. Torture good. Human rights evil.) because the Chinese people will be offended if we use their propaganda spectacle to promote freedom for Tibet, which China has been brainwashed into believing belongs to them.

In fact, he offers us the best reasons to boycott and embarrass China as much as possible. The Chinese care about their image, and their barbaric practices and genocidal campaign against Tibetan culture should be highlighted. But what sort of boycott should be mounted?

Answers below the fold.

I do not think that athletes and governments should boycott the Olympic games themselves. The opening ceremonies should be avoided by all official representatives but the games should go on. Participants can show their support by wearing Tibetan colors whenever they can, and by greeting all reporters with a hearty "Free Tibet!".

However, we, the People, should boycott the event totally. Watch no TV coverage, boycott TV sponsors and anything made in China for the duration of the games. The world should turn its back to China and make clear to the Chinese that they are not yet a respectable nation, that they remain barbarians as long as they reject the notion of human rights. After all, we have no Jesse Owens to stand up to the evil. There is no Tibetan team competing, because the Chinese want to eliminate any notion of "Tibet".

In addition, the leadup to the event should be used to promote Tibetan freedom. In particular, the route of the Olympic torch should be filled with protests and reminders of Chinese barbarism. Americans have only one chance; April 9 in San Francisco. Join us in the streets to send a clear message to these bastards that Tibet will not be forgotten.  

Of course, it isn't easy to boycott everything made in China. China largely owns the American market. But we can try during the Olympics. The main thing is to insult China whenever possible. If, as the article states, the Chinese are so sensitive about it, it is time for a public kick in the nuts to drive the point home.

There are some things that are easy to do. My business receives spam mail from companies in China trying to sell me their slave-labor produced products. I respond with a polite letter stating that our policy is to purchase nothing from China until Tibet is free.

Do what you can to support Tibetan freedom and remind China of its many other crimes. It is awkward to do so while the criminal Bush continues his assault on civilization and rights, but this isn't about us. If we held the Olympics this year there would be widespread boycotts, for good cause. But this is China's moment, and while the lights are shining we need to be making noise.

•  well, I have no interest in the Olympics anyhow

  so not watching this time won't be a stretch.

  As for protesting to free Tibet? Terrible idea. It would be best to criticize China solely on human rights grounds.

  Demanding that Tibet be made a fully independent nation will backfire tremendously. Many Chinese resent interference in what they see as an internal matter, and even those Chinese who support improvements in human rights (which is a lot of them) do not necessarily support an independent. Even the Dalai Lama has reduced his demands from full independence to autonomy.

  by limpidglass on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:30:24 PM PDT

  •  that should be

    "do not necessarily support an independent Tibet."

    by limpidglass on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:41:41 PM PDT

•  Hmm ...

  let's say the Olympics were not held in Beijing but in the US. Would you argue as forcefully that they should be boycotted because of the illegal occupation of Iraq that has cost thousands and thousands of Iraqi civilians their lives?

  Just sayin' ...

  by RWeede on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:35:22 PM PDT

  •  I would

    ...+4 for bringing up a valid point.

    by jds1978 on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:57:23 PM PDT

•  I enjoy the Olympics

  (though must admit I like the winter ones better), but I've decided I will not watch any Olympic broadcasts (though it'll be tough to avoid everything Olympic related as I'm a sports nut and they'll be reporting on stuff on ESPN and other networks).

  Extremely tough to avoid anything made in China in terms of consumer goods, but I'm trying at least (only what's absolutely necessary). I'm already boycotting WalMart so that helps. ;)

  by Cali Scribe on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:36:46 PM PDT

•  Lets boycott the Olympic sponsors

  by kanuk on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:40:30 PM PDT

  •  Hell yes

    I wrote on this subject a few days ago.  The games are totally corporate-controlled and aren't living up to their supposed goals.  I'd like to see as much attention paid to Chinese environmental and human rights abuses, then the end of the Games.

    by Coach Jay on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:47:37 PM PDT

    •  Yes, all we need to do is put enough

      pressure on the sponsors to ramp up the pressure on the IOC who will ramp up the action on China.  The Olympics are still a few months away, and if there could be enough pressure on the Sponsors they could do something and help Tibet, while still having a successful Olympics.  But time is running out and action must be taken immediately.

      by kanuk on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:29:20 PM PDT

•  Watch your dollars

  Want to protest Tibet?

  Don't buy products made in China. Don't watch the Olympics on TV. Don't buy any Olympic merchandise. Take every reasonable opportunity you can to remind others why you are not supporting the Olympics.

  Don't put athletes into the crosshairs of a political firestorm.

  by banjolele on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:45:40 PM PDT

  •  Yes on all counts.

    It's the most powerful and consistent way to make an impression on the Chinese leadership. Economic non-violent non-cooperation is a beautiful thing....

    by emacd on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:02:44 PM PDT

•  Daily Mail:

  Tibetan women are also forcibly prevented from having children, despite supposedly being exempt from China's strict birth-control laws, the film's director Jezza Neumann discovered.

  Measures include monitoring menstrual cycles, forced abortions and sterilisation if women cannot afford a fine for having a second child.

  One woman, a married farmer, described her agony at a forced sterilisation operation without anaesthetic.

  Etc etc etc

  by bugscuffle on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:47:41 PM PDT

  •  Is this just the same one-child policy

    applied to all Chinese? You're aware they have a massive overpopulation problem, right?

    by Opakapaka on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:11:28 PM PDT

  •  Interesting. Tibetans are indeed

    supposed to be exempt from the one-child policy.

    All ethnic minorities are. There is no fine for having a second child. The fine is paid by those of the Han majority who elect not to follow the one-child policy.

    But I am curious to see this Neumann documentary.

    by beijingbetty on Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 07:14:57 AM PDT

•  Tipped and Recc'd

  ....I will not watch a single moment of the Beijing Games.  

  by jds1978 on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:56:13 PM PDT

•  boycott walmart...

  and leave the olympics alone

  by JackieandFritz on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 02:58:38 PM PDT

•  The US cannot boycott the olympics...

  because China would respond by sending America into a full-blown depression by calling in the security bonds the US has floated in Beijing to pay for the war in Iraq.

  by David Kroning on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:09:14 PM PDT

  •  Believe it or not, the attitude of every

    Chinese person I know towards America is completely absent any awareness of the rage, fear and paranoia I am seeing on these boards.

    The Chinese bought the American bonds because they thought it was a good, safe investment. You should be excited that you pulled a fast one on them.

    How would it serve Chinese interests to have global instability? That is not their style. They were not the country sending out economic hitmen to other countries -- that was US.

    I've seen you post this a bunch of times, and I think you ignore the fact that China and America's fates are economically tied. A collapsed America hurts China too. I just don't see how it works for them.

    by beijingbetty on Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 07:18:48 AM PDT

•  You should read the Orville Schell book

  And get a bit of perspective on your comments.

  by DrJK on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:23:02 PM PDT

•  The difference between your viewpoint

  and that of Tom Doctoroff's is that Tom understands China (he's lived there for ten years), and I am pretty sure that you do not understand China at even a basic level.

  My business receives spam mail from companies in China trying to sell me their slave-labor produced products.

  To assume that any significant amount of China's products are produced with slave labor to me demonstrates quite clearly your ignorance (and blind bias) on the topic. See this article for more on the topic.

  I praise China for lifting 500 million people out of poverty.

  I don't see why they should stand by while Tibetans riot, murdering ethnic Chinese and destroying their property. I don't see why they should stand by and let a certain region of their country secede.

  Any government will protect its sovereignty above most anything else. Our government has done, and will continue to do, the same.

  What specifically has China done that deserves a boycott? Would our government not do the same to "protect our national security" or to "preserve the union"?

  by Opakapaka on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:32:06 PM PDT

  •  By the way, thanks for pointing out

    Tom Doctoroff's blog. It is fantastic, and I agree with almost everything he says.

    by Opakapaka on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:37:30 PM PDT

  •  I'm not quite that sure

    about Tibetans murdering Han Chinese.

    More than likely, they had government agitators infiltrating the protesters.  

    And what has the Chinese done?  Well for a start, creating a slave-labor system where Communist party bosses control local businesses, and they have income disparity that puts the US to shame.  They have no freedom of the press, or freedom of religion, and they've displaced and imprisoned ethnic minorities.

    by Dcoronata on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:42:00 PM PDT

    •  Please provide evidence

      to support your contention that China is a slave-labor system (I provide a link which demonstrates the opposite in the comment you're replying to). Also please provide evidence on the income disparity being worse in China than in the US, here's evidence that shows the opposite.

      Here's evidence of murder/property destruction aimed at ethnic Chinese. In the FT, they were saying that the Tibetans were hanging white handkerchiefs outside their windows to show that the store was owned by ethnic Tibetans, so that it wouldn't be targeted.

      China is not America. I agree that their lack of freedom of the press is quite bad. But when we invaded Iraq, where did you get your news? I resorted to reading the Guardian, from Britain, as our news outlets provided little more than flag-waving propaganda.

      As Tom wrote in his blog:

      And personal liberties have expanded dramatically; there are 200 million netizens who express opinions relatively freely, as long as the third rail of organized dissent is not touched.

      The fact is, China now has a more competitive economy than we do, and they have lifted 1/12th of humanity out of poverty. In terms of democratization and the promotion of western freedoms, the best path to acheive this is to promote the growth of the Chinese middle class, and boycotts of Chinese products/events would have the opposite effect.

      by Opakapaka on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:57:32 PM PDT

      •  More on Chinese labor practices

        link.

        by Opakapaka on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 04:11:07 PM PDT

    •  good lord you're ignorant

      I don't mean that in a bad way, just a factual way.

      First, the idea that violence against Han Chinese is just agitators is preposterous. Tibetans are fully capable of fomenting their own ethnic and religious violence, thank you very much.

      Second, there is no "slave-labor system" in Tibet now, though there certainly was one, for centuries, when Tibetans were more or less left to rule themselves; Tibet's heinous serf system was only recently ended by the Chinese.

      Tibet has never been the free and peaceful paradise that kids whose understanding of the situation goes no deeper than the words "Free Tibet" on their t-shirts would have us believe. To the contrary, Tibet has always been a poor, undemocratic, and generally shitty place to live.

      Tibetans are more free and prosperous now than they have ever been. That's not to say that the Chinese don't curtail human rights in some ways that are protest-worthy, but let's not idealize Tibet or imagine that Tibet would be so much better off if not for Chinese "tyranny."

      .

      by RationalThoughtProcess on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 04:19:55 PM PDT

      •  "And my plantation had running water"!

        Your ignorance is of monumental  proportions. The barbarians have beaten and tortured monks from the day they invaded and conquered an independent people. You have obviously never met any Tibetans. I have, but there are plenty of alternatives for finding facts. Western journalists have reported the abuses by the  barbarians for decades.

        People like you have defended the South Africans, Sudanese (Chinese-supported of course) and others before. Earlier, your the insisted the Nazis were no threat.

        Tibetans deserve freedom just as much as Americans do, and have the right to fight for independence by any means available. That they have preferred non-violence   for half a century is nice. But there are no restrictions and as Americans we should support their struggle against the evil hegemony of the barbarians to the north.

        by MakeChessNotWar on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 06:01:02 PM PDT

        •  "the day they conquered an independent people"

          When was this? When China's Yuan dynasty (Mongolian) conquered Tibet in 1240? When China's Qing dynasty (Manchurian) re-conquered it in the first half of the eighteenth century? Tibet has belonged to China for 217 of the last 257 years, and for much of the time before that, no doubt.

          Your description of the Chinese as "evil barbarians" belies your hatred, which is likely racial in nature. How do you see an ethnic Chinese living in Tibet compared to an ethnic Tibetan--are they somehow less of a human being? The answer should be, they are both equal.

          The problem in Sudan, in South Africa, etc., was that people were treated differently by the government; i.e. one group was disadvantaged. Are Tibetans being treated differently by the Chinese authorities? Or is the problem just that you think the Chinese in Tibet should have less rights than the ethnic Tibetans?

          The current criticism I have heard of China on this topic is that they promote the economic development of Tibet and that they promote the free migration of people into and out of Tibet. I praise both of these actions. If China is actually treating Tibetans who do not actively seek independence badly, then this is clearly wrong, and I would like to hear about it from a reputable source.

          Of course, Tibet can fight for independence. But China is probably the second most powerful nation on earth, and they will certainly not give up sovereignty on part of their land, just as we refused to give up sovereignty of the South in the Civil War.

          by Opakapaka on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 06:56:04 PM PDT

        •  wow, you've actually met Tibetans?

          Well then obviously I must defer to your superior knowledge, I guess. Or not.

          The hotheads and roving gangs who are torching businesses and beating up random Han bystanders in the streets are not engaged in a "fight for independence" in any meaningful sense. They have no agenda or plan other than stirring up trouble. They are keenly aware (unlike you, it seems) that China is not going to let Tibet secede, not now, not ever, not under any circumstances.

          There is no movement of brave Jeffersonian democrats in Tibet, waging a noble battle to throw off the shackles of tyrants so they can establish a liberal republic. There are simply some gangs, motivated primarily by ethnic and religious resentment, lashing out for no particularly good reasons and to no particulary good ends.

          Tibet has been a repressive and backwards society for centuries; it is actually less repressive and backwards now than at any point in its entire history. "Free Tibet" is a lovely sentiment, but please recognize that Tibetans have never been free and the current crop of ethnic and religious rioters are not motivated by a desire for democracy.

          by RationalThoughtProcess on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 10:54:44 PM PDT

•  Don't boycott the Olympics!

  The athletes work very hard, and most get one and only one shot at it.  Even though the vast majority lose, they still compete and I think they can only help international relations.

  So if you want to punish China, don't buy Chinese products.  I know it is getting increasingly difficult, but there are ways to at least limit the purchase.

  by Dcoronata on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:36:51 PM PDT

•  I'd already decided to not watch.

  As a long-time track nut and track coach, that will be difficult for me, but I can't reward China for it's actions in Tibet and other parts of the world.

  The olympics is the the one event in which the sports I competed in during college (the three self-defense sports - track, cross country and wrestling ;-) ), are taken as important in the U.S.  It really will be difficult for me to not watch.

  by LookingUp on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:40:25 PM PDT

  •  Watch it on YouTube

    Or download torrents from foreign TV feeds.

    Watch it without contributing to anyone's advertising dollars.

    by Dcoronata on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:43:02 PM PDT

•  We should approach it differently

  Boycotts rarely are affective.  I like the idea of having all the athletes wearing Tibet flag arm bands as a form of protect.  Another would be to find Tibet athletes and sponsor them as US athletes.  We could get the Dali Lama to be a swim coach.  Doubt he'd do that, but maybe as a spiritual advisor.

  I enjoy watching the Olympics every 2 years.  I'm not a sports nut, but this is the way we as a nation of individuals can join other nations in a show of peace.  Using Olympics for big political purposes goes against the spirit of the Olympics and the cause of peace.  The US boycotted the Moscow Olympics and the big losers were the athletes many only had that one chance to compete.

  by dangoch on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 03:43:50 PM PDT

•  No Boycott

  Don't make the kids who train their whole lives suffer, for our lack of political pressure on China.

  Maybe if we hadn't spent all our goodwill somewhere?

  Don't make the olympics political

  by bshanna on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 04:32:34 PM PDT

•  Try to buy ad time on the Olympic broadcast

  The Networks are under no obligation to sell you time, but over the air stations can be forced to sell to candidates in many States.

  by ben masel on Sun Mar 30, 2008 at 05:05:39 PM PDT

•  Hypocrites. Narrow minded and myopic ones at that

  It is so interesting me how the Olympics have become the catch-all excuse for anti-China hate. I bet you don't even know any Chinese people, do you? So it is OK to hate them. Will they be the new towel-heads? The new objects of fear and hate? How long before we start drawing up the plans to invade?

  Why is it China's fault that America is addicted to cheap goods? Why is it China's fault that America ELECTED TWICE a complete jackass who ran out country into the ground, so that the Chinese economy is the only thing HOLDING UP the US economy?

  Your protest has nothing to do with doing anything positive for Tibet, or China, or even America. It is a closed minded excuse to be HATEFUL.

  God forbid Americans actually wean ourselves off the oil we burn, the resources we consume, the cheap goods that drive our consumer economy.

  China's imperfections are a reason to HATE China, whereas American's imperfections -- 1 Million Dead Iraqis are inconvenient but can be overlooked in this case "because it's not about us" -- are understandable, forgivable, even, because we all know how America even when toppling other nations is a force for good, and the Chinese even when trying to secure their own sphere of influence can only ever be, really, legitimately framed as a force for evil.

  American good, China bad. Nice rules. Let the games begin.

  by beijingbetty on Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 07:07:53 AM PDT