On trial in Beijing

Dear China,

Toeing the company line during this summer’s Beijing Olympic Games can be hazardous to your image.

Why? Because Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), the group consisting of International Olympic Committee and in-country Chinese organizers, has decided that it is in the best interests of viewers of and participants in the Games to not air anything considered to be a political protest. What a sham.

Under the guise of “protecting the Olympics,” there’s no way that viewers can expect to see any live feed of the events. For those who enjoy watching the Games through the miracle of television or internet, technologies that permit viewers to share in the experience though they may not be able to physically attend, this is very sad.

It’s inevitable that China’s record of oppressing Tibetans as well as not using its leverage in the Sudan to change the course of genocide in Darfur will motivate some who attend the games to demonstrate.

China and the IOC did the right thing by not allowing live feeds in an effort to “protect” the Games. Sport is conducted by human beings and the reality of their human experience. This conflict is what we get for the decision the IOC made. This may seem contradictory, but read on.

China’s regulation has the IOC for a willing partner. The IOC took a lot of heat for the type of censorship many feared would come true when they chose Beijing as the host city. The IOC deserves the heat but also deserve kudos for shining the light. We’re just now seeing how China thinks about censorship, human rights, and how they clash with our views on those issues, which are here to stay. They’ve been a part of China’s legacy for many years.

Human rights and China’s Olympics were never going to be a perfect union. If the IOC hadn’t chose Beijing, we would have had even less sunlight on an impenetrably secretive government. Because China hosts the Olypmics, we get to see how China’s actions either support or refute outside claims of human rights abuse. In what is a thoughtful, long-term play by the IOC that put the onus of responsibility on China, we get a contentions first impression of a country that banked on the Olympics as its coming-out party.