All eyes on China

For at least two decades I’ve read conflicting arguments over the best approach to foreign relations with China. Will increased trade help bring about increased freedom for Chinese people, as they are exposed to Western ideas more and experience a taste of free choice at least in the area of buying and selling? Or is that just rewarding the authoritarian regime, allowing them improved status and power without their having to improve their record much if at all?

These questions have come up for a lot of discussion as the preparations for the Beijing Olympics have progressed. And they’re not any easier to answer. I know some people think it was a terrible mistake for the IOC to award the 2008 Summer games to Beijing. They think President Bush should boycott the games. Some of them will practice their own private boycott by not watching the games on TV.

I have little interest in watching the games themselves, but I’ve many times thought about whether or not it’s good to buy products made in China. Some products are made by slave labor, and others by people working in such awful conditions that it might as well be slave labor. Yet other companies in China provide decent working conditions, and offer new opportunities for prosperity, personal advancement, and contact with Western people and ideas, which bring many benefits to their workers and their families. Reducing trade with China would reduce both.

Fuwa or wuwa?

It would probably be an understatement to say I’m not much of a sports fan. Even the quadrennial Olympic games (now biennial, if you count count both Winter and Summer Olympics) have rarely captured my interest. (I do sometimes watch the Super Bowl, partly to do something with my husband that he enjoys, and partly to watch the commercials.)

I do remember watching an Olympic gymnastics competition on TV once when I was a girl, and trying to spin gracefully around the living room. I remember being at a friend’s house during the 1988 Winter Olympics, and watching some skiing and skating because that’s what my friend decided to do for the evening. I think I caught a few minutes of some swimming events at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that until tonight I didn’t even know that the Olympics had mascots. I do remember being in Spain in 1981 and seeing tons of merchandise featuring Naranjito, the smiling orange mascot for the upcoming 1982 World Cup tournament, and thinking of buying one as a souvenir even though I had no interest in soccer. But the closest I’ve ever lived to an Olympics site was when I was a student at Word of Life Bible Institute during the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid. I do not remember ever seeing any depictions of Roni the Raccoon or any Roni merchandise – though as TV’s were not allowed on campus and shopping in the nearby town was extremely limited, that’s hardly surprising. 

Spotlight on Beijing

To say I’m not interested in sports news is an understatement – my worst category in Trivial Pursuit is Sports & Leisure (though followed closely by Arts & Entertainment). But even I know what country is hosting the Olympics this summer. Of course, most of the news on that topic, for now, is more political than sports-related, as people argue over whether it was right to allow China to host the Olympics, and whether we should boycott the Games.

William McGurn had an interesting column about that question in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. “By agreeing to stage the Olympics, the [Chinese] government has also given a world stage to anyone with a grievance.” How much attention would people be giving the protesters if not for the backdrop of the Olympic Torch relay?  How many people who regularly buy items marked “made in China” without a second thought will reconsider, their awareness heightened by the frequent news stories – generally negative – about China?

Unfortunately the people of China, lacking the free flow of information we enjoy, may not know how much attention the fault of their leaders are getting.