Previously on this blog, I've decried the fact that America is going to look the other way and head to Beijing for the Olympics. China's human rights abuses, in my opinion, were simply to egregious to ignore. Then the story came out that the Chinese government had kicked almost a two million people out of their homes in order to make the Olympic stadium, and simply bussed them out of town when foreign dignitaries came to visit.

Then Tibet rebelled. The Dalai Lama does not want to secede, they merely want autonomy. They want to practice their religion. Free Tibet protests have broken out around the world. In Paris today, officials had to extinguish the torch twice in order to smuggle it past the protesters.

China exercises tight control of any information its citizens might read. The great Firewall of China effectively blocks any stories, websites, or news that does not line up with the Chinese governments communist agenda. The average Chinese citizen has no idea that the world is rooting for Tibet, the the world criticizes the government for abusing its people, that the world cares about them. Instead, the Chinese government is telling their people that they have found dynamite and plastic explosives in the Buddhist monasteries, and whispers about suicide bombers.

When China became a host city for the Olympics, they agreed to allow the foreign journalists uncensored access to the internet. The Firewall would be lifted, at least for the duration of the event. It might be the only chance for the Chinese people to have unfettered access to the Net. If the Chinese people realized that the world was watching, and for the most part, rooting for an overthrow of the oppressive regime from the inside, what would happen? Could a week's worth of access to the rest of the world change the future of the Chinese people?

I'm for the Chinese Olympics now. It's their only chance.

Labels: China, Olympics