Regime Watch: Beijing

The International Olympic Committee made a staggeringly bad decision by allowing Communist China to host the 2008 Olympics. Here’s a snippet from a recent New York Times editorial describing Beijing’s “list of Olympic dont’s” for international visitors:

On its Web site last week, the Chinese Olympic organizing committee listed a set of restrictions for the 500,000 overseas visitors expected in August. Olympic spectators are being told not to bring in “anything detrimental” to China, including printed materials, photos, records or movies. Religious or political banners or slogans are banned. So are rallies, demonstrations and marches — unless approved by authorities in advance. It also says that visitors with mental illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases will be barred from the country.

We shudder at how those judgments — many of them highly subjective or intrusive — will be made.

The International Olympic Committee has long prohibited political activities at Olympic venues, and we respect the goal of trying to put aside divisions while celebrating a common humanity. But Beijing is using those restrictions for its own authoritarian ends.

The sensitive souls at the Times editorial board seem a bit surprised that an authoritarian communist regime could be granted the Olympics… and then continue to act like an authoritarian communist regime. Shocking.