Left Flank

Vishakha N. Desai tries to get at that uncomfortable lump in my throat caused by the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But the extravaganza also left lingering doubts. Why such a drive to prove to the world that these had to be the very best Olympics ever? (Chinese authorities even pressed the International Olympic Committee to make such a declaration at the conclusion of the games.) Some have suggested that the effort suggests a hint of insecurity.

It should also be noted that while Mao was conspicuously absent in the Olympics, his communist legacy was present in subtle ways. The relentless emphasis on the «harmonious» presence of large groups of performers left no room for individual voices (even the young singer Lin Miaoke, as we now know, didn't have her own voice). Ironically, while younger Chinese (products of China's one-child policy) are obsessed with personal stylistic statements, the drama of the opening ceremony consisted in collective expression at the service of the state.

Chinese intellectuals have always been cognizant of this tension between individual creativity and collective will. How will the new China balance these two conflicting needs?

As we contemplate the potential arrival of the new Tang Dynasty in China, we should remember the message of the old Tang Dynasty poet, Po Chü-i (772-846 AD):

Sent as a present from Annam,

A red cockatoo.

Colored like the peach-tree blossom,

Speaking with the speech of men.

And they did to it what is always done

To the learned and eloquent.

They took a cage with stout bars

And shut it up inside.

beijing olympics, t'ang, china, prc, ioc

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What a horribly unpropitious start for 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Russians settle scores with the Georgians over South Ossetia, and the father-in-law of the US Men's Indoor Volleyball team is murdered.

John Hoberman deflates all the positive aspects associated with the Olympic movement, and concludes:

«Admirers of the Olympic “movement” can point to the success of a show business internationalism that has survived a tumultuous history. An institution this hardy, one might argue, must offer something of value. This year, perhaps, it is a starring role in celebrating China’s astonishing economic success story. Just don’t ask about human rights.»

The Duck's Charli Carpenter rebuts the claim, that the Olympic movement is about human rights at all:

I am no expert on the IOC's history or on any large-N studies that may or may not confirm Hoberman's claim that the Olympics have a negative or at best zero effect on the frequency or intensity of interstate war. But I am able to see an important conceptual problem in Hoberman's argument: he treats «internal human rights» as synonymous with «interstate peace.» For example, the first sentence of his abstract begins with the foil: «The Olympic Games were founded to bridge cultural divides and promote peace.» But the article primarily refers to the internal human rights abuses of certain Olympic-hosting states as evidence that this goal has not been met by the IOC. Hoberman derides the IOC's official policy of political neutrality and Olympic diplomacy as an «old cliche»:

«What the Olympics promote instead is a form of amoral universalism in which all countries are entitled to take part in the games no matter how barbaric their leaders may be.»

But it is precisely this amoral universalism that has the capacity to promote peace - among, not within, countries. It is no different from the political neutrality espoused by humanitarian organizations who, like the IOC, lack coercive instruments and instead peddle universal norms; or by the United Nations, an organization founded on the sovereign equality of states moreso than on a commitment to clean up their internal politics. In fact, the tension between these two noble goals - international stability between states, and human rights within them - underlies many of the key debates about UN reform today. Hoberman treats these two goals as if they are the same and can be conflated, when in fact, achieving one often depends on undermining the other.

So, let's be easy on the Olympics? Can we just agree on «Do no harm!» Or, how about, «Get off your asses and play a game yourselves» Why bother defending an institution only trying to refurbish its own reputation, rather than confront its own scandals or improving amateur sport? Has the spackled-on glitz halted the Russians, or kept a tourist safe? The nation-states of the world might not be as aristocratically honorable as the Greeks of the ancient Olympic era, but then the Greeks never had to contend with corporate sponsors and corrupt politicians. Can we just stop selling hope and dreams until someone delivers on past debts?

Robert Lipsyte has a contrarian view of the Olympic movement I'm contrarian enough to applaud the irony of calling the International Olympic Committee an «evil empire».

So, if an athlete just has to compete in the spectacle for his/her career, what is he/she to do, especially with progressives screaming for a boycott? How about handing the flag to a Sudanese refugee to spit in Beijing's eye during the opening ceremony? Beijing has struck back on that perceived insult.

By revoking the visa of 2006 Olympian Joey Cheek at the very last moment because he had the nerve to speak out about Darfur and the Chinese government's support for Sudan's barbarous regime, Chinese authorities guaranteed that the opening of these Games would focus as much on politics as on sports. The burden now is not on China's critics but on its government.

Supporters of China's Olympic bid hoped that this month's events would showcase how much the country has changed. Let's stipulate many of the things they regularly assert: China is more prosperous and, in important senses, more free than it has been for generations. It is in the world's interest, and in America's interest, to deal peacefully with China and to acknowledge its growing power. We have business to do with China, in the most basic sense of that word, on global warming and also on many diplomatic questions. And, yes, China's economic growth has been staggering.

But a dictatorship is still a dictatorship, a fact that so many who highlight China's achievements try to discuss only in the most guarded tones because there is such fear of antagonizing the Chinese government. Yet the Chinese government seems to have no compunction about antagonizing those for whom liberty and human rights take priority over sports and making money.

Barring Cheek, a gold-medal-winning speedskater, was an utterly gratuitous act demonstrating that no matter what the Chinese leaders promised in order to host the Olympics, they will not put up with athletes who have the nerve to challenge their policies.

Cheek and former UCLA water polo player Brad Greiner are co-founders of Team Darfur, a group that calls attention to the suffering in Sudan, which happens to provide China with a lot of oil. Greiner's visa also was revoked.

No tears here-why should the sovereign states of DPRK and ROK have a joint team marching together anyway?

The Taiwanese and Chinese are also playing language games, when the Taiwanese delegation almost boycotted the games because of a demeaning modifier. Beijing threatened to call the Taiwanese contingent, «Taipei, China», as if the Taiwanese were from a province of the PRC, instead of «Chinese Taipei».

Based on a protocol signed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Taiwan has been participating in international sports events under the English title «Chinese Taipei» since 1981, due to pressure of from China.

Tai continued that according to a pact inked between both sides of the Taiwan Strait in Hong Kong in 1989, all sports teams or organizations representing Taiwan will follow IOC regulations when attending sports events in China.

Both sides also agreed that Taiwan would be referred to as «Chunghua Taipei» in Chinese characters, or «Chinese Taipei» in English, in any of the Olympic Games' publications or public information materials such as brochures, invitation letters, athletic badges and media broadcasts.

In the Olympic standings, the Chinese Taipei team uses the initials «TPE,» with the Republic of China's National Banner Song as its team song, according to Tai.

She explained that if a Taiwan athlete wins a gold medal, the host authorities should play the Republic of China's National Banner Song while the «Chinese Taipei» flag is being raised.

The more politics in this corporate sports spectacle, the more I might enjoy it. It's certainly more remarkable than ugly gray skies.