British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing. This puts the UK alongside New Zealand and Belgium in banning athletes from expressing any negative opinions about the Chinese regimes deplorable human rights record and murderous record in Tibet. Meanwhile, the United States, Canada, Finland, Australia and others – have pledged that their athletes would be free to speak about any issue concerning China.
My views on the vile Chinese dictatorship are well known and my views on this particular matter are that the BOA should be ashamed of themselves. I was against the Olympics being awarded to China and I think that even at this stage the BOA should be using its leverage to try and shame the Chinese abou their record, not that the Chinese regime is particluarly shameable. The Chinese aim to use this year's Olympics to boost their standing in the world and top of that list is that they top the medal table. I expect that the last time so many drug cheats will have won gold medals would have been during the days of the Soviet Bloc's domination of World Athletics in the 1970s and early 1980s. This was when as the expert Jean-Pierre de Mondenard stated drug cheats existed in countries "both communist and capitalist, but the difference with East Germany was that it was a state policy". The Chinese are just as involved and they hide this from the world by keeping their athletes in China as much as possible, so reducing the chances of them being drug tested abroad by the generally supine International bodies. Menawhile in China there is no meaningful testing.
Just as when the Labour government kept protestesters from the eyesight of the Chinese "dignatories" on their State visit, the BOA (no doubt under Labour government control) have shown themselves to be as bad as the Chinese govenmnet that they are protecting. I am a long time fan of athletics but am seriously wondering whether my stomach could take the sight of the preening Chinese politburo drinking in the fruits of their murderous past.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Any such political gagging is reprehensible and probably illegal.
However, if British Olympic competitors are stupid enough to sign away their human rights like this, surely the ban should also apply to London as well as to Beijing ?
The issue of the cost overruns and the "legacy" of the London 2012 Olympics is certainly "controversial politically", and London is an official Olympic site or venue.
Will British Olympic competitors refuse to share a political platform, or to be included in political campaign propaganda, with Ken Livingstone in the forthcoming Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections, or with Gordon Brown during the next General Election ?
Post a Comment