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McDonald’s, Ma and Hu awarded ‘Olympic’ golds

Activists portraying, right to left, President Ma Ying-jeou, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Ronald McDonald hold up their gold medals and certificates after being named winners for human rights abuses at a mock Olympic closing ceremony in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Ronald McDonald were among the gold medal winners for human rights abuses at an unofficial Olympic closing ceremony in Taipei yesterday.

Ahead of the official Beijing Olympic closing ceremony yesterday evening, groups including the Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT), the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Taiwan Free Burma Network organized a “closing ceremony for the Bloody Olympics” yesterday morning.

TFOT vice chairman Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮) said that while many had hoped that China would become more open and improve its human rights record ahead of the Olympics, the reality has been disappointing.

“Abuses not only increased, but China has also exported abuses by supporting authoritarian regimes in Myanmar, Sudan and Zimbabwe,” Yang said.

As a result, Hu was awarded the “lifelong achievement in human rights abuses” award.

In addition to Beijing’s continuing oppression of Tibetans and its support for repressive regimes abroad, Hu’s achievements include the military crackdown on the 1989 Tibetan demonstrations in Lhasa during his time as communist party secretary-general of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

“Before the Games, China talked about improving human rights, but they have killed many dissidents in China and Tibet and tried to cover things up by curbing press freedoms,” Tashi Tsering (札西慈仁), chairman of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress-Taiwan, said before presenting a placard and gold medal to an activist wearing a Hu mask.

Next up was the “I’m lovin’ it — the money” award, presented to an activist dressed as Ronald McDonald.

“Tens of thousands of people in Myanmar were slaughtered by the military junta and Myanmar’s democracy movement leader Aung San Su Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 years,” said Yang Yung-chu (楊永助), a Burmese-Chinese living in Taiwan who presented the award.

“The military junta doesn’t care about international pressure because China has their back,” Yang said, explaining that China supported Myanmar in exchange for its resources and direct access to the Indian Ocean.

“It’s true that McDonald’s has long been an Olympic partner, but they’re spending more money than ever in Beijing, because they only see a market of 1 billion potential customers, but not people being killed,” he said.

“McDonald’s does not see the 200,000 people who have died in ethnic cleansing in Darfur. China supported the Sudanese government and provided them with weapons in exchange for oil,” he said.

Ma, meanwhile, received the “Now-we-know-who-you-really-are” award.

“Ma told us that he would consider boycotting the Games if repression in Tibet didn’t stop before the Olympics — but now we know who he really is,” Yang said.

At the end of the ceremony, an activist dressed as a Formosan black bear emerged to present the “Only-gold-medal-for-Chinese-Taipei” award to Uni-President (統一集團) — the only Taiwanese business to sponsor the Beijing Games.

Other award recipients included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who sat with top Chinese officials and proclaimed Beijing “home” to Taiwanese athletes, and another Olympic partner, Visa.
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