John Fox, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations calls for a more efficient EU foreign policy that does not rule out any olympic boycott:
EU leaders need to make clear to the Chinese Government that they are prepared to boycott Olympic ceremonies and to consider a broader boycott of the games if necessary. The EU should be prepared to suspend dialogues and cooperation activities with China and cancel planned visits. This is a language which China understands and regularly uses against the EU over Tibet, Taiwan and human rights issues.
The EU also needs to challenge what the Chinese Government is saying in public. Gordon Brown is right to see the Dalai Lama when he visits – other EU leaders should too, to challenge China’s ridiculous attempts to portray him as a terrorist and to sideline him. EU leaders should challenge China’s insistence that this is an internal issue – protests are worldwide and EU publics demand that their leaders intervene. The EU should also challenge China’s closing down of Tibet, demanding that international observers and media be let in.
Filed under: politics | Tagged: Beijing, beijing 2008, China, ECFR, EU, Foreign policy, olympic games, olympics, think tank, Tibet
It’s disgusting that all these companies are hoping to profit over hosting the Olympics in a country with such an amoral sociopathic government. A government that mowed down thousands of its students with bullets, brutalizes and oppresses the Tibetan nation, maintains a lucrative organ harvesting business fed by its mass executions, crushes any attempt to for people to follow indepent philosphies, like tne Falon Gong, etc. The list goes on. We must not only go after the Chinese government but also all the internatonal companies that sponsor the Olympics. People like this would not flinch an eye to support the Berlin Olympics if this was 1936. Same thing, different year! Don’t give these tyrants their moment of glory! A complete international boycott would teach these fascist Maoists the lesson that they so richly deserve, Too bad they can’t t switch the Olympics to Taiwan. instead! Let’s keep the pressure up on China and all the sponsoring companies, including the Olympic comittee.