Calgary Herald, March 18, 2008
While the world community must condemn China's brutal quashing of protests in Tibet, the West should not use the Beijing Olympics as a pawn in the process -- if only for the sake of the athletes.
It is the International Olympic Committee that should decide no future Games will be awarded t0 countries capable of such oppression as we saw in Tiananmen Square, and now in Tibet.
Granted, China was given the Games in the hope that by welcoming its regime into the Olympic fold, notions of democratization and civil governance would also take hold. But, given China's behaviour -- Tibet, oppression of Falun Gong and other minorities, and the persistent rumours of atrocities such as forced organ harvesting -- they obviously have not. The reality of governance in China has been obscured by its economic performance, with all its apparent accoutrements of modernity and a developing middle class.
Now, this invitation to equal footing with the West and to civil discourse just looks like appeasement, and falls sadly flat.
Still, a boycott of the Games would make the wrong people pay. Athletes who have spent years training for them, do not deserve to be innocent victims of what's unfolding in Tibet.
The IOC should just make sure future Games are held in countries whose human rights records survive close scrutiny.