A Chance, Not a Reward

The International Olympic Committee’s decision to award the 2008 Summer Games to China was not a surprise, though it was disheartening to people who think human rights should carry more weight. Memories of Tiananmen Square apparently have dimmed for the committee members, and China’s summary executions of nearly 1,800 people in three months and its persecution of the Falun Gong religious group do not seem to have excessively bothered the sensibilities of international moguls of sport.

Once the celebrations die down in Beijing, it will be up to the Olympic leaders to continually remind the sclerotic leaders of the Chinese Communist Party that the Games are not a reward for authoritarianism but an opportunity to advance the cause of freedom.

China has made great strides in the quarter-century since the Cultural Revolution, but much more needs to be done. Opening the country to athletes, tourists and journalists, treating its own citizens with respect, ending the arrests of American citizens and permanent residents on trumped-up charges would be a good start.

This has certainly been a banner month for China. Just 10 days ago it reached agreement with the World Trade Organization on issues that were holding up its entry into the club of global trading nations.

That marked another important step on the road to acceptance as a major player, which the nation clearly is with one-fifth of the world’s population. But if it wants to be seen as open and enlightened, it will have to change many of its ways.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan one year before its 1980 Olympics, leading to a boycott and a Moscow Games more filled with politics than sports.

But Olympics history offers better models. The Japanese marked Tokyo’s 1964 Olympics as that nation’s postwar coming of age. In South Korea, the Seoul Olympics of 1988 represented a major milestone on the journey from dictatorship to democracy. China can take advantage of the Olympics to follow suit.