Olympics can’t be separated from politics
Apr 13, 2008
EDITOR—President George Bush, whose hypocritical insistence that “the Olympics should be about the athletes and not about politics†and who defiantly says he will attend the opener in Beijing, wants to rewrite Washington’s own history of Olympic boycotts. So does the Chinese government, whic
EDITOR—President George Bush, whose hypocritical insistence that “the Olympics should be about the athletes and not about politics†and who defiantly says he will attend the opener in Beijing, wants to rewrite Washington’s own history of Olympic boycotts. So does the Chinese government, which, like Bush, advocates separation of sport and politics.
Both the US and China have a history of involvement in Olympic politics.
In 1976, China demanded and obtained Taiwan’s exclusion from the Montreal Olympics. Beijing’s argument was that Taiwan was its renegade province and allowing it to participate in the games would amount to a diplomatic recognition for it. On its part, the US boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics to flex its Cold War muscles.
The State Department’s classification of the slaughter in Darfur is ‘genocide’, a term Bush, Secretary Condoleeza Rice and other administration officials have consistently used when talking about the killings. The US lists China as a sponsor of the genocide for importing Sudanese oil.
Bush has to stay away from the Beijing games or else he will be remembered as the US president who attended and opened the ‘Genocide Olympics’. If Mugabe, el Bashir and Kibaki also show up, Bush will certainly be in warm company at that exclusive sports club!
Bosire Mosi
United States
Both the US and China have a history of involvement in Olympic politics.
In 1976, China demanded and obtained Taiwan’s exclusion from the Montreal Olympics. Beijing’s argument was that Taiwan was its renegade province and allowing it to participate in the games would amount to a diplomatic recognition for it. On its part, the US boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics to flex its Cold War muscles.
The State Department’s classification of the slaughter in Darfur is ‘genocide’, a term Bush, Secretary Condoleeza Rice and other administration officials have consistently used when talking about the killings. The US lists China as a sponsor of the genocide for importing Sudanese oil.
Bush has to stay away from the Beijing games or else he will be remembered as the US president who attended and opened the ‘Genocide Olympics’. If Mugabe, el Bashir and Kibaki also show up, Bush will certainly be in warm company at that exclusive sports club!
Bosire Mosi
United States