09 April 2008
Olympic Torch Protests Illuminate U.S. Right to Peaceful Dissent
Public safety, civic freedoms balanced at San Francisco torch relay
Washington -- Protests about the April 9 display of the Olympic torch in San Francisco are in the best U.S. tradition of peaceful dissent.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to peacefully express their views. Reflecting that ideal, U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth said in an April 7 statement that San Francisco provided a forum “for the peaceful expression of opinions and dissent” against the human rights polices of China, which is hosting the August 8-24 Olympic Games. The protests center on Chinese policies regarding Tibet, Burma and Sudan, and the lack of press freedom in China.
The Olympic torch made its only U.S. stop in San Francisco as part of a scheduled 21-country, 136,794-kilometer global relay that will end in China.
The torch was ignited on Mount Olympus, Greece, on March 24 and is being carried, driven and flown around the world. Between 100 and 200 runners participate in the relay in each city where the torch is displayed. The origins of the torch ceremony derive from ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the original Olympic Games.
Ueberroth said the torch relay through San Francisco would show the city’s “commitment to peace and tolerance." San Francisco city officials said they had coordinated with U.S. federal agencies to ensure the safety of the torch run for participants and spectators.
CHINA URGED TO PUT BEST FACE FORWARD
The United States is urging China to “put its best face forward” for the Olympics by improving its record on human rights.
State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in an April 3 statement that the United States was “dismayed” that the Chinese government sentenced prominent Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia to 42 months in jail “under the specious charge” of “inciting subversion of state power.” (See “U.S. Condemns Prison Sentence for Chinese Human Rights Activist.”)
The White House says it never has been reluctant to express its concerns to China about that country’s human rights record.
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SPEAK ON CHINA’S POLICIES
Human rights advocacy groups shared with America.gov their own concerns about China’s repressive policies.
Laura Ingalls, spokeswoman for Freedom House, says the “abuse China regularly administers to its own people is not consistent with the Olympic spirit.”
“In a democracy, sport is usually apolitical,” but “in a dictatorship such as China’s, the government ensures that nothing is apolitical, including sporting events,” said Ingalls.
Ingalls said that “people who live freely cannot simply be good sports and ignore China’s consistent record of human rights abuses.” China, she said, “has made it clear, again and again, that it has contempt for the basic freedoms” of its people.
Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said the United States is a “democratic country where people have the right to express their views. There are many people in China who would like to have the same right to speak as they please whether it pleases their government or not.”
The message that is sent to the Chinese government by the protests is that “they can’t stage-manage the Olympics in a way that shuts out all dissenting voices,” said Malinowski.
The group has called on the world’s political leaders not to attend the opening ceremonies of the games or any of its other symbolic and political events.
OLYMPIC BOYCOTTS EFFECTIVE?
Steven Clemons, a Washington political blogger, says growing calls for nations to boycott the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics are “reckless and pander to knee-jerk emotions in the American public rather than promulgating a more serious understanding of the key areas [where] we need Chinese cooperation and where we conflict.”
In a comment to America.gov, Clemons said a boycott would not achieve its objectives to change China’s policies and potentially could alienate China “on other key fronts in which we need them” -– such as on nuclear arms, North Korea, Iran, climate change and the global economic order.
“Human rights are important, but binary decisions to engage or disengage a country often produce a result that is counter to that which we are seeking,” said Clemons, an Asia specialist at the New America Foundation, a Washington public policy institute.
Sportswriter John Powers, who covers the Olympics for the Boston Globe, told America.gov that the games tend to be controversial because they are one of the highest-profile events in the world, with 3 billion people watching in person or on television.
Powers said protesters know they will get a global audience when they demonstrate against the Olympics, especially in 2008 when China is being criticized for its human rights policies.
He said China’s history of objecting to foreign intervention strongly indicates that China “will not have foreigners telling them what to do in their domestic politics.”
Even massive global protests to change China’s policies regarding Tibet “probably” will have no effect on the Chinese government, said Powers.
See “Right to Dissent a Cherished American Freedom,” and “Olympic Games Are World’s Biggest Magnet for Publicizing Causes.”
