Who the hell is Prince Charles?

By China Watcher

It was reported in the Telegraph, a British Daily, on 29 January 2008 that the Prince of Wales had made his stance clear that he will not be attending the Olympics Games in Beijing this summer. He gave no reason for his decision, and neither did he say whether he had received a formal invitation.

The decision was prompted by the Free Tibet Campaign which has been conducting a worldwide campaign to persuade prominent political and celebrities figures not to attend the Olympics in protest of Chinese policies.

The Prince may not have said that many words to fully back the Free Tibet cause but the spokesman from the non government organization tried very hard to use this publicity to support his intrusive agenda to hit China on its human rights records.

Personally, I think the Chinese ambassador in London, Fu Ying, should not place so much effort in attempting to bridge the relationship between the Prince and the Chinese government. The Prince of Wales was the one who spoke out so rudely about the Chinese leaders by referring to them as “appalling old waxworks” in some leak diaries to the press during the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. This is so unbecoming of the future King of England. He also show disrespect to the Chinese government by meeting openly with the Dalai Lama and in 2002 he received certain religious outcasts from Tibet when the British government official stand is that Tibet is an inalienable part of China.

The Prince vocal dislike and hostility towards China, a potential economic and political world’s superpower, had raised concern among the British elites and the present Brown’s administration. The main reason why he attended the recent Chinese festival in Chinatown, London and the slight change in his tone was the increased pressure from the British government and businessmen that his stubborn attitude may affect the development of a strong economic partnership with China at a time when the French was cementing US billions of business deals with the Chinese.

The staging of the Olympics is a way to demonstrate to the world that the Chinese people, after 150 years of humiliation under Western powers and the economic failures 50 years ago, have now overcome the political and social impediments to take its rightful place in the world stage – a position held 500 years ago during the later part of the Ming Dynasty.

Using a political platform with the many China related issues to attack China over the staging of this prestigious and major sports event will be a futile effort and it will fail miserably. Sports and politics should never be allowed to mix as it defeat the principles of gamesmanship and respect as promoted by the Olympics.

Two of the world’s most influential figures, the US President and the UK Prime Minister had accepted the invitation to grace the opening ceremony at the Beijing Games, expected to be the best ever held and the most memorable in the entire annals of the Olympics. I believe there will be more VIPs and celebrities who will choose to ignore the call to boycott the Olympics in Beijing.

By having one less celebrity at the Olympics will not in anyway dent this wonderful sporting event. In fact, the party will proceed with much lavishness and joy – at least with one less reluctant guest. Celebrating the historical occasion, a wide-eyed innocent bystander among the Chinese crowd in the Stadium would then shout "Who the hell is Prince Charles? Who is he......