Human Rights in China

USA Today has an article about the concerns many people have in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games, about China’s reprehensible record on human rights. This article includes discussion of China’s complicity in the Darfur massacres. I wondered about this bit:

“Other countries are acknowledging the risk of political activism by their athletes during the Games. The Belgian Olympic Committee has prohibited its athletes from expressing opinions on human rights at Olympic venues and won’t let them wear any symbol protesting China’s human rights record.”

“USOC has not imposed any such limitations ahead of the Games. But USOC CEO Jim Scherr says, “The stage of the Games is not the venue for an athlete to make their own political statements.”

Why not? Seems like a pretty good stage to me.

“China’s state propaganda machine opposes the politicizing of the Games, especially about Darfur. To do so “is inconsistent with the Olympics spirit and will bear no fruit,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said last month.

In other words, it’s not polite to call brutal thugs brutal thugs. It’s not polite, but it’s always appropriate.