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China Rejects Attempt to Link Developments in Burma to Beijing Olympics

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  • China Rejects Attempt to Link Developments in Burma to Beijing Olympics

    China Rejects Attempt to Link Developments in Burma to Beijing Olympics

    By Glenn Kessler
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Tuesday, October 2, 2007; Page A10

    A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said yesterday that his government is working hard to stem the violence in Burma and argued against efforts by activists to link participation in the Beijing-based 2008 Summer Olympics to China's handling of Burma.

    Linking the two is "totally irresponsible," Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy, said at a hastily called news conference. He said that the Olympicmovement is based on "non-politicalization," and that China's "consistent stance is that irrelevant issues should not be linked to the Beijing Olympic games."

    China proved sensitive to an earlier attempt by activists in the fight against genocide in Sudan's Darfur region to organize a campaign to boycott the Olympics. It responded by appointing a special envoy on Darfur and became more actively involved in seeking a settlement between the government and rebels.

    China's sensitivity about similar calls to link developments in Burma to the Olympics was reflected by the embassy's decision to hold the news conference on a Chinese national holiday. Beijing has deep trade and business ties with the military junta that controls Burma, also known as Myanmar, and earlier this year joined Russia in vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have pushed Burma to ease repression and release political prisoners.

    China, when it vetoed the U.N. resolution, pointed to the generally neutral stance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member. But the association has turned against Burma, declaring last week its "revulsion" over the bloody government crackdown on demonstrators.

    Wang said China helped to get a special U.N. envoy into Burma, and he described meetings on the crisis involving Chinese officials last week. He insisted that "in the last couple of days, the situation there appears to have some signs of relaxation."
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    [The U.N. envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, met today with Burma's senior general, Than Shwe, to discuss the crackdown, the Associated Press reported, citing a foreign diplomat who requested anonymity.]

    In response to a question about whether China wanted Burma to reach out to detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Wang said: "We encourage the national reconciliation among the various parties of the country through peaceful means, and, of course, dialogue included."

    In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win said his government is the victim of an international neocolonial effort to derail Burma's goal of establishing a "disciplined democracy."

    "When protesters ignored their warnings," he said, government forces "had to take action to restore the situation. Normalcy has now returned to Myanmar."

    Staff writer Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.

    washingtonpost.com
    On the one hand we claim that politics should not be linked with sports and yet repeatedly we find it is an instrument used to browbeat nations into submission as in the Olympics held in Moscow and now attempts being made for the Beijing one!

    Yet, there is no doubt that it is a powerful instrument in that the host country not only loses face, but has a huge financial loss.

    But the real issue is that the sportsmen, who practice and wait the interim years to give their best, suffer since age is very material to any sportsman.

    Is it fair?


    "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

    I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

    HAKUNA MATATA

  • #2
    Normalcy has now returned to Myanmar
    Why does this statement make me think of the book "1984"?
    If you know the enemy and yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. - Sun Tzu

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Ray View Post
      But the real issue is that the sportsmen, who practice and wait the interim years to give their best, suffer since age is very material to any sportsman.

      Is it fair?
      Sir,

      Ever since the Olympics have been commercialized, who cares? These are no longer amateur athletes competing for honour and glory of home but rather professionals looking for their next paycheque. If they boycott this one, they have another one to goto to earn their pay.

      Comment


      • #4
        Life ain't fair. As a general rule, if you visit another country to engage them in sport you can easily be interpreted as providing a tacit endorsement of that country. You will be accepting their hospitality etc.

        However, in this case i can't to see how visiting China in 2008 endorses the situation in Burma, or that in Darfur.

        Surely there are longer standing issues that the activists should also be thumping? Tibet? Taiwan?
        at

        Comment


        • #5
          trooth,

          Surely there are longer standing issues that the activists should also be thumping? Tibet? Taiwan?
          burma, darfur- these are areas which beijing is willing to negotiate some to ensure a smooth olympics.

          tibet and taiwan- no way they're gonna change on that one; the populace would have the CCP's heads.
          There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

          Comment


          • #6
            I highly doubt any financial loss even if a few countries boycott the games with how much the companies are sponsoring it since they know the market China can become in the years ahead.

            Its interesting how the games are so influential for something that is suppose to have nothing to do with politics.
            Those who can't change become extinct.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by wkllaw View Post
              I highly doubt any financial loss even if a few countries boycott the games with how much the companies are sponsoring it since they know the market China can become in the years ahead.
              I think so too. but the million + people who are or will be illegally evicted from thier homes to build the Olympics venue will be partly in vain then.
              - 所謂 忠,奸,正,邪,善,惡,對,錯 到頭來老天爺會替你做結論 -

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