China Will Get the Olympics It Deserves

WSJ ^ | May 6th, 2008 | WILLIAM MCGURN

[The_Republican]

Too bad there's not an Olympic medal for getting your argument backward. If there were, the People's Republic of China might have to share the gold with those agitating for a boycott.

With fewer than 100 days to go before the opening ceremonies, Chinese officials want outsiders to stop using the Olympics to bring up what a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman calls "irrelevant political factors." By irrelevant political factors, she means China's suppression of Tibet, its weapons sales to the Sudanese government, its indifference to the God-given rights of its own citizens, etc. If people would just stop bringing these things up, the Olympics that the world will see on television would be the same fantasy that you see on those propaganda billboards featuring happy Chinese citizens appreciative of the care and concern they receive from the people's government.

Now, it is true that in the three decades since China opened its economy up to the world, life has changed in good and important ways for the Chinese people. Yet what the Chinese government does not seem to understand is that the flip side to increased trade and investment from the outside world is increased interest in, say, your policy of forced abortions for women who get pregnant without official permission.

To put it another way, by agreeing to stage the Olympics, the government has also given a world stage to anyone with a grievance. In a country whose actions have life or death consequences for people from Darfur to North Korea – and whose rule over one billion people is without the benefit of free elections – that adds up to a lot of grievances.

The government also seems not to have appreciated the potential consequences of having world leaders on hand for the opening ceremonies.

[Tallguy]

Thanks for the link. Will check it out!

[Biggirl]

Your welcome!

Proves well when a need correction with a last name leads one to do historic research. :)

[ichabod1]

schadenfreude

[ichabod1]

It depends on what happens down the road. I have a theory on the price of oil. It isn’t skyrocketing because more Chinese peasants are driving crappy cars on crappy roads. I believe it’s because the Chinese are buying up every drop of black gold they can get their hands on and storing it much like we store oil in the SPR. Why? They are drowning in increasingly worthless greenbacks or “Walmartdollars” and believe they’re better off holding a real product. Essentially they’re trying to pull a corner on the oil market, and they have so much cash they might just get away with it.

Also, the one thing China doesn’t have to support a major war of aggression is their own oil supplies. This is what buying all this oil does for them. I believe they have the idea of marching into the middle east in phase II and completing the corner by taking the oil fields.

[Tallguy]

I believe it’s because the Chinese are buying up every drop of black gold they can get their hands on and storing it much like we store oil in the SPR. Why? They are drowning in increasingly worthless greenbacks or “Walmartdollars” and believe they’re better off holding a real product. Essentially they’re trying to pull a corner on the oil market, and they have so much cash they might just get away with it.

Possibly. I've heard that the power grid in China is very much underdeveloped in the hinterlands. Many manufacturing concerns get all or a significant portion of the electricity from on-site diesel generators. This is grossly inefficient.

I caution that this is just anecdotal. I have no numbers to back this up, but probably nobody else does either.

[numberonepal]

Could there be another “Jesse Robinson” to emerge to “embaress” the ChiComs just like what Jesse Robinson did to Hitler?

Only a diver or gymnast could do the embarrassing. However, both are subjectively scored and we all know how that will turn out.