The reality of dealing with the Chinese government must have hit International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge hard on Thursday when, after saying that the Olympics were in crisis and human rights were a serious concern, he was effectively told by the Chinese Foreign Ministry to mind his own business.
Rogge cannot be faulted for doing everything he can to hold a successful Olympics, but he can be faulted for not holding China to account much earlier over its failure to, in his own words, “respect this moral engagement” that Beijing included in its bid.
The San Francisco leg of the Olympic torch relay further harmed China’s image, forcing IOC board members to reconsider the relay event, and no wonder. Surrounded by tense-looking San Francisco police with batons at the ready, an inner circle of Chinese paramilitary “thugs,” as London Olympics chairman Sebastian Coe called them, looked absurd in Olympic sports wear as they ushered the torchbearers along their detoured route.
This awful spectacle did not attract anything like the political storm that might have been expected during a presidential election in the US. Possibly blinded by the pseudo-sacred sight of the flame, a large number of Americans failed to respond to the amazing sight of Chinese paramilitaries manhandling an American torchbearer on home soil for daring to reveal a small Tibetan flag.
Thank goodness for the Australian government and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, then, in banning these thugs from direct participation in the Canberra leg of the relay.
The same cannot be said for Rudd’s compatriot at the IOC, Kevan Gosper, whose preciousness and blindness to the reality of China and Beijing’s manipulation of the Olympic movement is sickening.
Insisting on the separation of sports and politics is disingenuous in Gosper’s case: We remember all too vividly how members of the IOC promised that China’s hosting of the Games would have a beneficial effect on its domestic situation. This was utter nonsense, and now that the cat is out of the bag, IOC members are retreating to the standard “athletes are not responsible for the actions of states” trope.
There seems to be a bubble of self-delusion surrounding IOC board members: Obscure athletic events held every four years, they insist, necessarily change nations for the better. The self-delusion becomes complicit arrogance, however, when some of those members then argue that the Olympics trump expressions of support for human rights.
Athletes are responsible to their sports. When they represent their nation in a politicized event they also bear responsibility for their presence, even if many are unable to grasp their greater role in events or the nature of the countries they visit. Ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law, but for many Olympians ignorance seems to absolve them from criticism or any form of moral accountability.
With all of China’s cynicism on show and with months of instability ahead, an IOC board with a degree of self-respect would have the guts to warn Beijing that it needs to convince the world that the Beijing Games will not tarnish the Olympics’ reputation. Otherwise, this time around it might be compromised irrevocably.
Like many others in 2001 who argued that China would make an effort to adjust its politics and human rights policies, the IOC was taken for a ride. For the disappointment of athletes affected by such instability, it is the IOC and the host country that are responsible — not protesters outraged at oppression and murder.
And as for its all-entitlement, no-obligation mindset, Beijing’s not even bothering to hide it anymore — not even from its allies at the IOC.
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