Home >> East Asia >> China, Hong Kong & Taiwan  Email  Print China’s Troubled Olympics Saberi Roy - 4/29/2008 China finds itself in a diplomatically and politically uncomfortable situation yet again with the Tibet unrest and needs to come out with a solution to its problems at least before the Beijing Olympics, but considering its political directions, that is most unlikely to happen. At the moment all solutions of the China-Tibet problem, can only be temporary.
With the Human Rights Watch group highlighting political prisoners held by China that include human rights and pro-democracy activists, China is now facing international pressure to hold talks with the Dalai Lama and establish calm in the region. The basic problem seems to be the difference in the approach towards Tibet. Whereas Tibetans believe they have primarily been an independent nation and China is only an occupier, the Chinese government has always projected Tibet as part of China and see the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders as dissidents. The Dalai Lama and Tibetan peoples’ struggle for independence from Chinese rule seems to have entered a new episode once again and at the very wrong time, just before the Beijing Olympics.
The international community finds itself dealing with problematic issues as China is a growing force to reckon with, a strong and growing economy, having considerable influence on countries that have been bothering the west namely North Korea and Pakistan and a very lucrative region for foreign investors. Yet at the same time, with its communist tag, perennial crackdown on Tibet and alleged human rights violations, China brings in a lot of confusion in international politics. Communism apart, the Tibet problem that seems to sporadically flare up and remind people of China’s alleged human rights violations has shown up again at the wrong time, both for China and the International community.
China is politically important to the world, because it can negotiate with North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program completely and can also use its influence on Pakistan and even Iran and help negotiate political talks in Sudan. China keeps its tentacles wide and deep in dictatorial regimes and that is one of its political strategies and this is the country’s political strength and weakness at the same time. For any problems with states that are resistant to US policies and directives, China seems to be the mediator and that makes China all the more important. Yet China’s closeness with all controversial regimes and alleged supply of weapons to rogue states also adds to its weakness at least in the international political circuit. Being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China’s influence is very important and with its booming economy and large population, China is as economically important as it is politically important to the world. The US and European nations are keen to develop better relations with China and the US has also recently dropped China from its list of worst human rights violators. The UK and other European nations have also remained silent on human rights issues while the Olympic torch passed through these regions.
However the Olympics have yet again highlighted China’s flaws and human rights groups and activists are engaged in extreme criticism of China’s tactics. The Human Rights Watch group (HRW) has even issued a statement addressing the corporate sponsors of Beijing Olympics suggesting that the corporate sponsors are not doing enough to control or prevent human rights violations in Tibet. The HRW has also written to French President Sarkozy and urged other world leaders to stay away from supporting the Beijing Olympics. The corporate sponsors of the Olympics have remained silent on the Tibet issue and even the international community including the UN has not shown any great resolve to discuss human rights and the Tibet issue with China. Despite Dalai Lama’s popularity, Tibet is still considered China’s internal issue and the sponsors of the Olympics and even the international political leaders find it easier to remain quiet at this time at least until the Olympics are over. The corporate sponsors cannot speak against human rights violations and cannot pull out at this point. The international leaders will have to keep in mind the interests of corporate houses and the participating athletes before taking any major decision to boycott Olympics or speak against China’s policies. So at this time, all international political displeasure against China will have to be covert or at best controlled and although it is unclear whether all leaders will support China through the Olympics, at least it can be predicted that most world leaders will only show measured responses to the Tibet-China imbroglio. Similarly all business leaders and corporate houses will try to work in the best interest of athletes and predictably show minimal or no responses to human rights issues and concentrate solely on the more business and management related aspects of the Olympics. For once, the political issues seem to have taken a backseat and human rights issues in Tibet may not be addressed for a while, despite the appeal of human rights groups worldwide.
Yet at this point, strangely it is advantage China as also advantage Tibet. On the one hand, the Olympic Games have put the international focus on China and its economy, its much hyped cloud busting techniques and large corporate houses are eager to boost the morale of the athletes and maintain the reputation of the Olympics. So Beijing finds itself in a very strong position to crackdown any unrest without much fear of international condemnation or mass boycott of the Olympics. International boycott of Olympics by world leaders and corporate leaders would harm the games rather than China so that would not be a good option. In this case thus China emerges rather powerful in its stance on Tibet and all international protest against China can only be irresolute and delayed or simply mere words of displeasure.
On the other hand, the Tibetans and the Dalai Lama’s movement for independence also stand in a rather advantageous position as the world’s attention has once again turned towards Tibet and Human Rights groups and activists have become increasingly active in the region in recent months to protest against China’s human rights violations. The protesters and human rights activists have used the Beijing Olympics as a strong prop to highlight the more troubling issues in the region and in a way they have also succeeded.
So the Beijing Olympics seems to have been advantageous politically, economically and socially for both China and Tibet as the forthcoming event has highlighted the Tibetan unrest and yet somehow restrained the world community from acting or speaking against China in any definite way. The situation can now strengthen China’s position against Tibet or even strengthen Tibet’s position against China. However, in this political battle the loser is the international community that finds itself distanced from China due to the Tibet and human rights issues and yet it cannot move too close to Tibet as that might mean a complete failure of the Olympics, which no one really wants.
With all the discomfort that China has been causing, the advantages are quite strong and the international pressure for talks with the Dalai Lama is at best very weak. Yet China recognizes the need to maintain a clean and agreeable human rights record and conduct smooth Olympics and so there have been some initiatives on the part of the Chinese government to hold talks with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders. At the moment China will only try to talk and keep things calm with Tibet for a while and it is only after the Olympics are over that the real game of power will begin once again.
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