How do you think human rights issues could play into China’s hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
Human rights were an important reason that China narrowly lost to Australia in the bid for the 2000 Olympics. The fact that they did win their second attempt meant that China’s internal human rights record would probably not become an issue unless something as dramatic as the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown took place. But over the past year or so, China has been under pressure to help improve human rights situations in other countries. It is widely believed that China’s concern about a potential boycott of the Beijing Olympics has been an important reason for its shifting position on the Darfur crisis. Encouraged by that example, some activists feel that they can repeat that in places like Burma. However, one should note that Beijing’s shifting position also had much to do with its desire to respect African concerns over this issue even though one may debate how well the Chinese government has actually addressed African concerns over this or other issues. Also, the Chinese government appears
