Globophobia | 4 September 2004

With the Athens games out of way, the Boycott Beijing campaign is now in full swing, arguing that China’s lousy human rights record should disqualify it from holding the 2008 Olympics and imploring the West to repeat the snub which marred the Moscow games of 1980. Admittedly China isn’t the sort of country you would want to invite home to have tea with your mother, but then the same applies to rather a large proportion of the countries that competed in Athens. If alleged human rights abuses were considered sufficient grounds to disqualify countries from holding sporting events, the world would not agree to hold them anywhere outside Norway. China’s human rights record does not and should not prevent us buying its manufactures, and neither should it prevent our marathon runners traversing Tiananmen Square in four years’ time. If anything, the presence of the Olympics will force China to adopt a more internationally acceptable form of government.