China, Olympics, Boycott?

[snaw]

Wondering what people think on this one - not proposing we should, just pondering on the merits of it when you see China sentencing a guy to 5 years for protesting on "We don’t want the Olympics, we want human rights.”

I do start to wonder about the morals of holding the games there and our attendance and how bothered I'd be if we didn't go ...

Guess the flip side is you get tit for tat and almost guarantee they'd boycott 2012. That would be great China and Russia both hating our guts ...

[Moscow Mule]

I think;

Whilst a precedent for using sport to a political end was set in the 80's, we should be above it now.

[The Lone Gunman]

Difficult:
Considering the amount of produce we accept from China and the amount of goods we sell to China it would be extremely hipocritical to protest about our Olympians fulfilling their dream.

[Marina]

Whilst a precedent for using sport to a political end was set in the 80's [..]

Unless you count the Berlin olympics in 1936.

(Backfired a bit for Adolph though, when Jesse Owens won. )

[PAH]

If I was an athlete I'd be boycotting simply because all that smog is a danger to the health.

How do they intend clearing it in time for the olympics? Ban all motorised transport from the city for a month beforehand?

[Diver]

If I was an athlete I'd be boycotting simply because all that smog is a danger to the health.

How do they intend clearing it in time for the olympics? Ban all motorised transport from the city for a month beforehand?

It's not motors, it's all the scrap electrical wiring and electric motors, they are buying from Europe and setting fire to in open fields to burn off the insulation so they they can harvest the copper.
Thousands of tons a year.

[HRH]

Im not eating chinese food anymore.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Didnt we boycott the Soviet Olympics over the invasion of Afghanistan - deja vu anyone ?

Anyway this is a futile gesture - the US will not exert any real pressue on China because of the deep economic links between those countries - personally I find the Chinese Communist's occupation and treatment of Tibet nauseous - but thats just moi.

[PAH]

It's not motors, it's all the scrap electrical wiring and electric motors, they are buying from Europe and setting fire to in open fields to burn off the insulation so they they can harvest the copper.
Thousands of tons a year.

Haven't they heard of wire strippers?

At the very least they should do it underground to heat the streets. Particularly useful in winter to stop ice forming!

[KathyWoolfe]

Even if the boycott went ahead I'm not sure that it would be enough to pressure the chinese.

Everyone thought that the pictures of the Tianenmen Square protest in 1989 would put pressure on the chinese Govt. to change things - and did they?

They don't respond to the same "triggers" that the rest of the international community does which is why it's so hard to persuade them to do things they don't want to do.
Plus the fact that the west is so dependent on chinese manufacturing that they don't really want to do anything to restrict the flow of goods from China into the rest of the world and you get a situation where nothing will be done on a national level.
Any sort of protest will have to come from individuals and that is easily ignored.