Consequences of a Western led boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing

By China Watcher

There are lots of developments surrounding the present hot topic of the possibility of a total boycott of the coming Olympic Games by the West. The Western reporters, after being chased out of Tibet for inaccurate and bias reporting, are united with an agenda to push for the total boycott of the August’s Olympic Games.

The latest Western leader to fall into the trap of the human right activists and Western media is the French President who was hounded by the press to give an affirmative answer to the question of boycotting the Games. Everywhere he goes, the press keeps pressuring him with the same question until he relented with a response. He was criticized in the media for being relatively silent on this matter. Yesterday, he mentioned that there is a possibility of a boycott of the opening ceremony in Beijing. The media, once again, wrote that the French’s President comments’ appeared aimed at persuading other world leaders to join him in boycotting the Games. I find this amusing since it was the press that applied pressure for him to make a reply and he could have given a reply which they wanted but not necessarily meant for other Western leaders to join him. Here we have a Western media twisting the content to its way of getting other to see it – a support for a total boycott of the Games. This is very dangerous and unfair reporting of this nature can stoke public emotions. It is sad that the Western media has to stoop so low as to get attention to achieve its goals.

If the West uses the issue of Tibet to boycott of the Games, my question is why do it now? Tibet as the Westerners claimed have been suppressed for the past 49 years and things have changed in Tibet since then but the West choose to view the issue only from the Tibetan perspective without giving consideration of the livelihood of the other major ethnic groups – the Han Chinese. Tibet is an inalienable part of China since the Mongol era even before the founding of the United States of America and the establishment of a convict colony in the now called continent of Australia. How come it is so difficult for the West to accept this? I will write an article on this matter after I complete my research.

Let us look at a scenario where the human rights group and the Western media have succeeded in getting a total boycott of the Games. The countries that would boycott the Games will be those from the Western Hemisphere – the US, France, United Kingdom, Germany and possibly a few countries from the European Union (like Czech Republic, Poland etc). Western media said the Chinese government is losing friends over the Tibetan rebellion but are these Western countries mentioned above sincere friends of the Chinese people? They are only friends when they want to do business with the Chinese. These countries are important for the fact they are technologically more superior and they are more advanced in which the Chinese could learn from them. In another 20 years – the world order will change – I see only the US being the only country standing in the Top 8. Russia, Brazil, India and of course China will replace the few Western countries listed above.

I am very certain countries like Russia, Brazil and India will not fall into the trap of the human rights activists and Tibetan exiles. Most Asian countries except notably Japan will attend the Olympics. African nations in majority supported the Chinese staging of the Olympics and they would willingly participate. Latin American countries except maybe, Colombia (pro-US) would not boycott the Games. There is a strong possibility that Australia and New Zealand may not follow the call for boycott due to its sizeable Asian population who does not agree with staying away from the Games.

From this angle, it appears that if a boycott of the Games comes true, only a handful of WESTERN nations will be missed from the prestigious sporting festival. There is no doubt that Germany and the US are strong sporting nations which may affect the overall quality and standard of the Games but the spirit of the Games will not be affected.

The immediate fallouts of the Beijing Games from the Western led boycott will be the Chinese boycotting of the London’s 2012 Games, an increase in the hatred among the Han Chinese (numbering 1.3 billion worldwide) towards Western nations, the changes in the Olympic Charter and the possibility of the non cooperation by the Chinese in the international arena to solve global issues.

On the trade issues, the Chinese will continue with its policy to diversify its economy away from these Western nations and hopefully, it will succeed in the future. Business dealings with the West will continue to decline. From the technological point of view, it is important for the Chinese to focus on home grown technology. By having one of the largest Research and Development budget and with the returnees from the West, I am confident there will be more scientists in China, in the forefront of technology, in about 20 years from now.

As for the Beijing Olympics, the show will go on.