Would you support a campaign to boycott the Chinese Olympics?

[Callisto]

I half heard a discussion on R4 on Saturday morning about why we should/shouldn't boycott the games next year and a quick google found this from Reporters Sans Frontieres: www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=174 (I had no idea such an organisation existed before this morning btw).

Personally I am in favour because of human rights and environmental issues in China and because of their actions in Burma and Darfur but my partner is anti any boycott because he says sport shouldn't be politicised.

What do you all think?

"Every year, several thousand Chinese are executed in public, often in stadiums, by means of a bullet in the back of the neck or lethal injection."

I don't think that politics and sport should mix.

I also think that if we were to boycott the 2008 olympics there would be countries that would do the same to us in 2012.

It is shocking that China was picked for the Olympics.

I agree that sports should not be politicised but the olympics inevitably is about much more than just sports.

I would boycott

No, I would have to think about all the athletes that have spent years training for the event..

Think there must be a better way to protest.

I would boycott. The olympics should never have been given to China, its a shocking message to send to the world, at least boycotting them would sent out a different message.

boycott on environmental issues??? Purlease. Practically everything we buy is made in China - if you object to their environmental record, boycott the goods

I'm not sure why so many people think that sport should be given any special treatment. Virtually every other aspect of our lives is tainted by politics. Why should sport be different?

If there is any way in which we can bring influence to bear to stop other countries from carrying out atrocities or to encourage them to use their influence to stop atrocities in satellite nations, then we should do it. I don't see that sport is a special case and should be allowed to exist in some sort of vacuum.

Boycott to send the message what they've done in Tibet is not acceptabel. We invaded Iraq when they invaded Kuwait, but because there is no oil involved for some reason we let China do what they want.

I don't agree that the games should be boycotted. Sport is the true antidote to a divisive world. It is aspirational, and should be accessible to the four corners of the globe, however we may disagree with a particular regime.

I was gobsmacked when I read this article The Chinese Government thinks it has almighty powers!
Also, if a boycott of the Olympics is not possible, surely we should choose where our goods come from. Back in the 70s and 80s we boycotted South African goods, why not Chinese?

I think sport IS political.
Am unsure though about how, as an individual, I would boycott the Chinese Olypmics. I wasn't going to go.

Ha! If we boycotted Chinese merchandise, our homes would be empty.

Not until I spent five weeks in China last year, did I realise the scale of it's world dominance (and it's governments not so overt desire to grow and maintain this dominance at any cost).

China has hideous human and animal rights records. Environmentally it's practices are horrific. Socially it has many, many issues.

Economically however, China is a superpower.

Boycotting the Olympics would be pissing in the wind I am afraid.

What makes you think there is no oil involved in China? They are lined up to become the world's biggest oil customer. They border Russia. They border Kazakhstan. And they have no environmental restriction on how to build refieries, power plants, etc.

As for Falun Gong.

I tried to engage a tour guide in a discussion about Falun Gong. She just refused to discuss it with me.

This website details more information on the persecution which goes on as we speak

for crying out loud, of course sport is political. That's why you had MPs involved in the London bid etc. I'm happy to boycott them (though I agree about the 'environmental issues' being codswallop, stop buying China goods, if you can)

The human rights abuses in China are sick-making.

not really a big olympics fan
but yes for burma and chinese human rights..

mind you, talking human rights .. we, uk, could be up for one too..iraq,rendition flights, right to demonstrate outside parliament etc..

cuts both ways no moral high horse anymore

But what I mean is that Tibet doesn't have oil fields unlike Kuwait, so nobody interested in standing up for them. And as you say China is a good customer so the West don't want to upset them.

Sorry, should have been clearer.

My point is that all wars are not driven by a Western greed for their oil resource. And consumers of oil are very important to those who have the resource (hence pointing out their borders with Russia and Kazakhstan -- bot of whome have lots of oil). So ther are some Easter countries who are nice to China because they want to sell them oil. And that is just as much about oil as Iraq is. And of course I beg to differ that Iraq is about oil anyway. But, that's a whole nother thread.

I'm not sure where I sit on this issue. I do agree that I wouldn't want to punish the athletes. But, then some of China's practices regarding human rights and the environment are indeed horrific.

And let us not forget that China itself joined the US led boycott of 1980 games in the then USSR. So, this would not be the first Olypic boycott on political grounds.

The only argument I can think of for not boycotting is that the huge influx of people coming to watch/participate might help encourage more openness,dialogue, political enfranchisement etc in China. Cf Desi's point. Alternatively it could all be a big bombastic militaristic show of strength fest and use money it should be using to help its populace to build a highly elaborate and short lived stadium complex. But how do we actually boycott, apart from not watching on TV?

I believe we boycott by not sending our athletes.

I am quite suprised that China's environmental record has been so redily dismissed, especially considering that environmental issues and human rights issues go hand in hand so often in China (polluted water and air etc). I actually started another thread about China importing 30 kilos of plastic toys per child per year into the Uk but no one was interested. I do boycott Chinese goods as much as I can and not everything is made there. China is an economic superpower because of the West's insatiable appetite for cheap shite.

I don't know how one would go about boycotting the games - I don't know if there is an 'official' boycott being organised. But boycotting Chinese goods and not watching the games (and telling people why you're not going to be watching) is surely a good place to start?

I was disgusted when China was awarded the Olympics in the first place so I shall be boycotting the event. Sadly, all I can do is avoid watching it on TV, but at least I shall feel I'm not condoning their regime.

Politics was the reason China got the Olympics in the first place so I don't belive sport is non-political.

Yes, Eleusis, that is what was being discussed on R4 on Sat morning.