Eye On America | Summer Olympics reveal tensions in China-U.S. foreign relations

Ross Weingarten Columnist

Next year, the world’s best athletes will gather in Beijing, China for the Summer Olympics. The games are a celebration not only of athletic prowess, but also of the host city, as past hosts have reinvented themselves in preparation for the games. Prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona underwent a major facelift to become the hip, charming city it is today. Four years later, downtown Atlanta saw a similar upgrade.

But as the 2008 games approach, it is not the physical infrastructure of Beijing that worries people, but rather the repressive practices used by the Chinese government against its people. Questions have been raised about whether the emerging superpower is qualified to host the world’s biggest sporting event.

A recent report by Amnesty International claims that China has not met its goals to improve its poor record on human rights violations. The report urges the International Olympic Committee to push the Chinese government to make further reforms such as eliminating detention without trial, torture, and control of local and international media.

Amnesty did applaud China for reforming its capital punishment practices and for loosening some restrictions on foreign reporters. Still, is it right that China, with its communist government and repressive tactics, is able to host the Olympics?

The Chinese government believes that it is. A report from the country’s foreign ministry rejected the report by Amnesty International, saying, “We are conscientiously fulfilling our promise for the Olympics...The progress China has achieved in human rights cannot be slandered by a report from an individual organization with political prejudice. (The Associated Press, “Group: China Falls Short of Rights Goals,” 4.30.07). However, the continued persecution and punishment without fair trial of foreign journalists and human rights activisits suggest otherwise.

Regardless of how China shifts its practices in the upcoming months, Beijing will host the Olympics next summer, and in the process of doing so, China will show off a gleaming new city and a rapidly growing country. With almost 1.3 billion people and a booming economy, China is poised to become the world’s most productive and perhaps most powerful nation in a matter of decades. Questions about the Olympics signify much more important and difficult questions for the United States: How do we deal with a nation that is still nominally communist, friendly with Iran, and could soon challenge our economic and military dominance?

The answer is: delicately. Washington-Beijing relations have always been tenuous, and now more so than ever. Recently, the Bush administration has demonstrated full-fledged support for a successful China. This is the right policy, as a combative stance from the White House would set up a fight that would be incredibly difficult to win.

Economically, China’s success may be a snowball that is rolling too fast to stop. While much of the country’s population lives in poverty, its Gross Domestic Product is growing at almost 10 percent per year, an unbelievably fast pace, and recently Chinese businesses have been buying out American companies such as Maytag Corporation. The United States might have to face the fact that within a few decades, China will supercede us as the most dominant economic superpower in the world.

But there is no evidence that China poses a military threat to the United States. Historically, there is no precedent that would suggest an aggressive policy by the Chinese government toward U.S. interests. Furthermore, while their armed forces are huge in number, they continue to lag behind our military in terms of technology and mobility.

Simply put, the perception that the United States and China are on a collision course for war is wrong. More importantly, China’s relationship with Iran and North Korea make it a valuable middle-man as we inch toward conflict with the two nations.

With that in mind, it’s important for this administration and the next to persuade the Chinese
government that we support their goals. While we have a duty to criticize China’s human rights violations and urge the country to change, we also must keep tension at a minimum and learn to live with an increasingly powerful China.

Let’s hope that American hubris does not get in the way of common sense. Co-existing with a powerful China should not be more difficult than racking up the gold medals next summer.