Figuring out how to protest, just enough

You know something is big news when the headline screams from the Drudge Report:

Ah, I thought to myself. Tibet has finally pushed the Eliot Spitzer $4,300 hoooker off the front page. And Obama and Hillary's cage match. And the Bear Stearns meltdown. Yes, it's a good week if you're a news junkie, if nothing else.

What this means is that the crackdown in Tibet is gathering steam internationally, fulfilling one of China's worst nightmares. It has worked tirelessly to compromise on nearly every sensitive issue to halt talks of a boycott, even agreeing to press Sudan to ease up in Darfur. Nothing has rattled the Olympic plans yet: no country is boycotting, no sponsors have pulled out. Only the odd athlete or politician with an axe to grind made comments about China's human rights situation, but nothing seemed to gain any traction. Even Steven Spielberg's withdrawal didn't seem to have much affect.

The wheels haven't fallen off yet, but they are getting rickety. I would suggest there is a finite amount of time for China to wrap up this Tibet mess in the cleanest and most efficient way possible to avoid any lasting fallout. If it doesn't - or can't - do so, the growing calls among people in other nations will continue getting louder. At some point, foreign governments will have to do something - anything - to show their displeasure.

That's where the Olympic opening ceremony boycott comes in, which Paul referenced below (for the record, I planned to write about this idea before noticing Paul's post).

Pressure is mounting, and politicians are starting to feel it:

A Dutch lawmaker, Joel Voordewind, had already suggested last month that countries "take part in the games but skip the party beforehand."

Even before the Tibetan protests, three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands called on Rogge to speak out on behalf of all athletes urging China to improve its human rights situation. On Monday, world 50-meter butterfly champion Roland Schoeman of South Africa said the IOC "should stand up and say, 'The way these people (Tibetans) are being treated is not acceptable.'"

Luciano Barra, a longtime Italian Olympic official who was deputy CEO of the 2006 Turin Winter Games, also believes the IOC should prepared to do and say more.

"For a question of credibility, the public opinion will say, 'You are just thinking about the games, not thinking about millions of people and freedom," he said.

Public opinion is powerful everywhere, but especially in western democracies. If enough people cause enough trouble, raise awareness of the Tibet issue, and swing the pendulum of public opinion in favor of punishing China, governments of these nations will have little choice but to comply. The question is, what can they do to appease domestic rabblerousers without damaging often lucrative trading relationships with China?

I happen to think an opening ceremony boycott might work. Paul mentioned below that China wants everything to go perfectly and that it's serious about its image. It is for this exact reason that, if governments feel strongly enough about the Tibet issue, it must make use of China's weakness on this point. I have been interviewed repeatedly on Canadian radio, and one of the questions I get asked most is: why don't people push China more to improve its human rights record and democratic freedoms? The answer lies in the economics: China is simply too vast of a market, with too much cheap labor, and too many money-making opportunities to be messed with. Western governments turn a blind eye to China's record (as noted recently when the US removed China from it's top 10 worst human rights offenders list), as do western companies. Nobody cares if Chinese people, like Hu Jia, or the Tibetans or Xinjiang people, suffer if there is a buck to be made. It's amazing how fast champions of liberty and human rights start towing the Communist Party line.

I write this somewhat hypocritically. I am in China and I'm enjoying it. I genuinely love the country, its people, and its history, and I highly I doubt I would risk what I'm doing here to stand up for Tibetans or other jailed dissidents. For this, I openly admit my shame. I don't like what's happening in Tibet right now, and I genuinely would like to see the Olympic games go off without a hitch. Even after this violence in Tibet, I am still personally opposed to a full Olympic boycott. This is a big moment in China's recent history, and the whole country is deeply emotionally involved. But, at some point China will have to answer for some of its past sins, just like America is still doing with regards to slavery, and Germany is still doing with regards to the Holocaust. It would be great of China had dealt with this already, leaving critics little to chew on as August 8th nears. But China hasn't admitted it's done anything wrong in Tibet yet (and surely even the die-hard Sinophiles must admit China has committed crimes in Tibet) - worse, it's still moving full-steam ahead with oppression, censorship, and brutality. If one can't use the one moment when China may listen to these concerns - the Olympics - when can one?

At the end of the day, as I mentioned previously, China and Tibet will need to come to a long-term solution to this problem. If China believes that crackdowns and demonizing the Dalai Lama will work, it is dead wrong. It will need to show some compromise on the issues that are important to Tibetans; not just dumping economic aid and development money into the region and expecting graciousness and undying loyalty to the motherland in return. China has shown little interest in treating the Tibetans as equal partners, and honestly listening to their concerns and desires. Perhaps a little soft pressure from foreign countries during China's big moment might help.

(Note: This article assumes that China has committed crimes in Tibet. This is a personal belief based on a number of books and periodicals that I've read on Tibetan history. That being said, this is a sensitive and emotional issue and is open to debate.

Furthermore, this article did not touch on the violence the Tibetans have instigated during this specific period of unrest. I'm aware that many innocent Han Chinese were attacked, and this should never be supported or tolerated, regardless of one's position. I have ignored the minutiae of these specific incidents to focus on the broader question, which is the general discontent among Tibetans living under Chinese rule.)