WASHINGTON (ABP) — China's repressive record on religious freedom is one of the main reasons many people are calling on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The White House indicated April 8 that Bush still plans to attend the opening extravaganza and parts of the games, scheduled for August. Since Chinese authorities cracked down brutally on Tibetan protesters in mid-March, religious authorities, human-rights groups and politicians have called on world leaders to boycott the ceremony or the Olympics altogether.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution April 9 calling on the Chinese government to end its crackdown in Tibet. The measure also urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to enter into negotiations with the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, on ending the conflict in the Chinese-occupied region.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is among those who has called on Bush to boycott the ceremony. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) echoed that call April 7.
Several Western heads of state have indicated that they may boycott the opening ceremony, including Bush allies Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
In an April 8 press conference, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush believes a boycott might not be the best way to bring about reform in China, but left the door open to a change of mind.
“Any time the president — the president can always make a change,” she said. “But the president has been clear that this is a sporting event for the athletes and that pressuring China before, during and after the Olympics is the best way for us to try to help people across the board in China, not just Tibetans.”
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has also called for Bush to boycott the ceremony unless the situation in Tibet improves significantly. The region has been controlled by China for decades.
“The ongoing repression of legitimate Tibetan demands for greater freedoms has been a constant source of resentment. But it is the desire for greater religious freedom and related human rights that has been an important demand of recent protests,” the April 4 statement from USCIRF said. The body is a bipartisan, independent government agency charged with tracking religious-freedom conditions worldwide.
“China's plans to ‘pacify' Tibet through religious repression alongside economic modernization and in-migration of mostly ethnic Han Chinese have fueled a deep and lasting resentment,” Michael Cromartie, chairman of the panel, said. “For too long, the Chinese have employed a ‘security' approach to Tibetan Buddhism — preferring repression, control of leadership decisions, castigation of the Dalai Lama, and ‘patriotic education' over freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.”
The protests that led to the Chinese crackdown began March 10 and were instigated by Buddhist monks loyal to the Dalai Lama.
But the commission and other human-rights groups have also long castigated China for its record in several areas of religious freedom and human rights. Many evangelical Christians are highly critical of the government's repression of “house churches” and other congregations that operate outside of official approval and control.
The Chinese government has also been at odds with the Roman Catholic Church for decades, leading to an underground Catholic community that is loyal to the Vatican. A separate Catholic hierarchy has official sanction from — and must submit to official control by — the Chinese government.
Other Christian leaders have also called on Bush to boycott the ceremony. During an April 8 prayer vigil on the eve of the Olympic torch's appearance in San Francisco, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said the Olympics are a symbol of the West's failed strategy for improving Chinese human-rights conditions.
“We want to say to China, ‘We thought that the Olympic Games would help you improve your human-rights record,'” the South African cleric and veteran human-rights activist said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “We still hope … but what we are saying to the heads of state, to President George Bush, is, ‘For goodness sake, don't go to the Beijing Games … for the sake of our children, for the beautiful people of Tibet. Don't go!'”
The running of the torch through San Francisco — the only North American stop on its world tour — was being met by large-but-peaceful protests the afternoon of April 9, according to news reports. But it faced more violent protests in appearances the previous two days in Paris and London.
International Olympic Committee officials announced that they would meet April 11 to consider canceling the international portion of the torch relay, fearing similar demonstrations.
-30-