Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday called the Beijing Olympics a copy of the 1936 Games hosted by Nazi Germany and criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for allowing China to host them.
“On Aug. 1, 1936, [Adolf] Hitler opened the Olympics in Berlin, boosting the morale of Germans. The IOC hoped that letting Germany hold the Olympics could make Germany more democratic and peace-loving, but the result was the opposite,” Tsai said in an article published in the Chinese-language China Times.
“During the Berlin Olympics, Germany suddenly became peace-loving and removed ‘No Jews’ signs. Hitler tried to make the world believe that Germany was the friend of the whole world. But history showed that Hitler told a big lie,” she wrote.
“During the Olympics, Hitler preached peace while building concentration camps. After the Olympics, Germany made the decision to kill millions of Jews,” she said.
The article said that in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, China has tightened control in Xinjiang and Tibet, arrested dissidents and is said to have installed surveillance equipment in taxis.
“Shops in Beijing are required to report suspicious-looking people to police and apartment windows facing the main street in Beijing must remain shut. China is using the state machine to crush dissidence, so the Beijing Olympics is a celebration held under martial law,” Tsai said in the article.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
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