Jeff Agase Agase is accustomed to
writing about less important things like the XFL. He respects your
opinion on this divisive issue and welcomes comments at [email protected].
Across the Pacific Ocean, the world’s most populous
country was in a fit of exuberant joy all weekend.
The fanatical sports obsession of its 1.3 billion inhabitants
makes people in blue and gold wigs look like well-behaved cricket
fans.
Its national sports teams have won 223 Olympic medals and ranked
third last summer with 59 medals in the 2000 Sydney games.
It offers a luscious landscape surpassed by no other country in
the world and an equally impressive national pride.
And now it has the Olympics. Great, right?
Wrong. On Friday, the International Olympic Committee announced
that Beijing, China will host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The problem? The term “human rights” is something of
an oxymoron to the authoritarian Chinese regime that has, according
to Amnesty International, executed over 1,700 people in the last
three months and brutally massacred droves of political
dissidents.
Sports and politics once again resume their uncomfortable
relationship.
The Olympics themselves have been no strangers to controversy,
dating back to 1936 when “Hitler’s games” in
Berlin saw international credibility (or was it timidity?) lent to
the fascist Nazi government.
That year, African American Jesse Owens, an alleged inferior to
Hitler’s master race, made a mockery of Nazism when he won
four gold medals on a single day as the Fuhrer watched in
disgust.
And while the world in 2001 seems far from the international
fallout of the fascist regimes of the mid-20th century, many
predict that China’s super-power vision with its denial of
rights to its own people, complete with the intolerance that
brought us such vivid memories as that of Tiananmen Square,will
take center stage.
Welcome to international controversy, sports.
The IOC had other choices, but its 1993 decision to award the
2000 games to Sydney by only a slim margin of two votes over
Beijing meant it had painted itself into a corner by legitimizing
Beijing as a potential host.
Toronto, long considered a desirable and able host city, lost
its chance when its mayor had the audacity to decline a promotional
visit to Africa when he pictured himself, “in a pot of
boiling water with all these natives dancing around me.” The
IOC bravely denounced the actions of a leader with no regard for
human tolerance.
Then it gave the games to Beijing, not exactly a bastion of the
human spirit.
And now, like it or not, China’s best opportunity to join
the world stage has come from sports, an institution hesitant to
politicize itself and built on the premise of human individuality
and achievement ““ premises that fall on deaf ears in the
Chinese government.
Granted, the dedication of the Chinese people can hardly be
questioned. Their quest for the Olympics, which included a
misunderstanding in 1993 when they thought they had been awarded
the games, has been a long and arduous one.
Beginning today, stadiums will be built and roads will be paved,
but most importantly, China will be thrust into the international
spotlight it has coveted for so long. That the Chinese see
Beijing’s selection as an international referendum is clear.
That they see it as a mandate for reform is not.
A crucial component of Chinese culture is stability. This
resistance to change looms ominously as the IOC responds to
criticism with the unrealistic hope that the fishbowl around China
over the next seven years will trigger sweeping changes.
And whether or not one believes China desires to make any
substantive changes regarding the way it treats its own citizens,
one thing is evident: the acceptance of an Olympic host bid carries
with it the responsibility of carrying the Olympic spirit.
The brutal purging of a religion like Falun Gong is simply not
consistent with the Olympic Charter, which mentions goals like
“respect for universal fundamental ethical principles”
and “the preservation of human dignity,” which Beijing
is now responsible to embrace.
Perhaps the massive increase in globalization and
interdependence will provide the impetus to embark on a long road
of reform in China. But a statement from the state-operated New
China News Agency points toward a nation intent on bolstering
international prestige by tipping the balance of power in its favor
rather than a nation interested in remaking itself in a democratic
mold.
When the periodical says, “Winning the host right means
winning the respect, trust and favor of the international
community,” one can hope that the virtues mentioned represent
goals rather than assumptions.
Strange to think that all of this came not from armies or
ideology, but from the right to host sporting events.
Sports have given China the opportunity to change, and hosting
the Olympics thrusts upon a nation the strict scrutiny of the rest
of the world. While the IOC is supposedly not a political
organization, its games can trigger both unity and terror among the
world’s nations. Ignorance by the IOC of an issue like human
rights is, in itself, a political statement.
For the Olympic spirit, if for nothing else, China must change.
Seven years are more than ample for China to turn around and show
the world just how far it will have come ““ although 65 years
ago, the Olympic spirit didn’t provide the spark for change
in Germany.
So now, in the parlance of basketball, one of China’s
favorite games, the ball is in its court.