Should Bush
boycott the China Olympics?
Well,
should President George W. Bush boycott the Olympics in China this summer?
Because
of China’s treatment of Tibetan monks, and China’s support of the Sudanese
government, there have been calls for our nation and others to boycott the
Chinese Olympics.
The
message the boycott is intended to send is, your human rights policies need to
change, stop killing monks and stop supporting the Sudanese government because
people are dying in Darfur.
What is to be gained by not going? Is Bush afraid that
China would stop giving $2 billion everyday to the United States to pay for his
wars if he offended them? Is Bush afraid that if he does not go, the Chinese
would call in their markers and weaken our economy even more?
Back
in February of this year, Bush was asked if he were going to boycott the
Chinese Olympics this summer, and here is his response: “I’m going to the
Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event.”
British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not attend
the opening ceremonies. And there is a call for all European leaders to boycott
the opening ceremonies.
The
three leading presidential candidates, U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.,
Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., all have called for President
Bush to boycott the Olympics.
Stephan
Hadley, Bush’s security advisor, recently said, “We have a lot of leverage on
the Chinese. We are using it in a constructive, diplomatic way. And it’s a lot
greater leverage than just the issue of whether he goes to an opening ceremony
or not,” Hadley said. “The whole international community has leverage. They
ought to be using it now, not letting themselves off the hook by simply saying,
‘Well, we won’t go to the opening ceremonies.’”
Exactly
what leverage do we have over the Chinese, and if we do have leverage, why
hasn’t it worked in the past?
We
can tell the Chinese that we will no longer allow them to ship tainted toys and
food to the United States. We can tell them that they must stop undervaluing
the Chinese yuan to the U.S. dollar. We can tell the
Chinese to stop killing and beating monks, and we can tell them to stop
supporting the Sudanese government and its genocide in Darfur.
Well,
we have told the Chinese to stop sending tainted food and toys, and they still
do. We have told the Chinese to stop undervaluing their currency, and they have
not. We have asked the Chinese government to stop killing and beating monks,
and they have not. We have asked the Chinese to stop supporting the Sudanese
government, and they still do.But we have not asked
the Chinese to stop paying for Bush’s wars.
So,
exactly what leverage do we have over the Chinese to get them to change the way
they treat people? Not much.
So,
should Bush boycott the Chinese Olympics?
If
Bush really wanted to send a message to the Chinese that they soon won’t
forget, here is what Bush should do: Bush should lead the American athletes
into China’s Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony carrying the American
flag, then lead them right out of the stadium.
That is how Bush should boycott the Olympics. That would
send a message that the Chinese would not soon forget.
Otherwise
he should just go because — he’s Bush.