The Beijing Olympics came to a close yesterday with a ceremony almost as majestic and impressive as the opening ceremony. The Summer Games offered a carefully crafted stage for showing off China’s rise to a great power, and through the magnificent sports arenas, the resplendence of the opening and closing ceremonies and the unsurpassed number of gold medals won, China has told the world that it has arrived.
That is all good and well, but the slogan “One world, one dream” would more appropriately read as “One world, different dreams,” for the touchstone for full membership in the international community is the ability to rise to the standards of a civilized, developed state.
Despite the brilliance of the opening ceremony, the Olympics showed that Chinese nationalism is of overriding importance. Beijing invested an unprecedented US$42 billion in the Olympics. To gain face for the nation, thousands of households were forced to move and tens of thousands of performers prepared for the opening and closing ceremonies without consideration of time, effort or money. To clear Beijing’s polluted skies, factories were closed and millions of cars were forced off the roads. Seven-year-old Yang Peiyi (楊沛宜) was sacrificed because she wasn’t considered by some to represent the face of China. A prettier Lin Miaoke (林妙可) lip-synched Yang’s voice, while Han children represented China’s minorities in a faux show of ethnic harmony.
Respect for the individual was sacrificed on the altar of nationalism.
When vying to host the Olympics, Beijing promised to respect freedom of the press during the Games, but Reporters Without Borders said the Beijing Olympics were a travesty of freedom of expression. Many human rights activists and supporters of Tibet as well as some foreign reporters had their movements restricted. Forty-seven Tibet activists were arrested during the Games. At least 50 human-rights activists were put under house arrest and at least 15 Chinese were arrested for applying for permission to organize demonstrations.
Beijing’s promise to allow the freedom to conduct interviews and demonstrations now sounds like a bad joke.
The Dalai Lama told Le Monde that a peaceful demonstration by Tibetans had been violently suppressed. Although it is difficult for the outside world to verify the unrest in Tibet, China’s ongoing suppression of that region and Xinjiang is a fact.
China used the Olympics to present itself as a great power, but a wide gulf remains between Beijing’s Olympic display and international standards of propriety. Human rights in China fall far short of the international community’s norms. China’s lack of respect for weaker states and its own citizenry proves that everything else comes second to nationalism.
China may have put on a brilliant performance in the Olympic arena, but when it comes to basic welfare, education, employment, standards of living, not to mention freedom, democracy and human rights, it remains unprepared to join the ranks of modern states.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
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