Public relations consultant /blog

China’s first Olympic Games to be held later this year in Beijing has always promised to be a controversial event, thanks to the country’s abysmal human rights record. Arguments that politics and sport don’t mix look increasingly naïve and the calls in China’s official media to boycott Steven Spielberg are just silly.

Sadly the Olympics always has and always will have many deeply political dimensions. And for the Chinese the Olympics is a fabulous public relations opportunity; a chance to shine on the world stage and shake off some of the stigma attached to being a developing country.

But it is more likely to prove a brutal lesson in how to take criticism and face up to broader responsibilities. Spielberg was right to call China on Darfur; while the Chinese argue against interfering in other countries’ internal affairs, they supply many of the weapons used to prosecute genocide. And just as corporations are learning to take responsibility for the wider impacts of their business, so must China.

Fortunately, for all their complaints, China is slowly moving on Darfur. All the more reason for those of us working with the free Western press to support the World Association of Newspapers campaign to free journalists, like Shi Tao – betrayed by Yahoo! – who has been imprisoned for exposing the authorities’ restrictions on reporting the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Posted at : March 6th, 2008 - 5:06 pm
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