WHAT YOU SAY

Boycotting isn't fair to athletes

The United States shouldn't boycott the Beijing Olympics. The reason is simple: The Olympic spirit is everything beyond politics. The Olympics is the world's premier sports event, and it shouldn't be politicalized. Demonstrations, protests or even boycotts would do nothing to change the issue itself, but would only make it worse. During the Cold War era, the Moscow Olympics and other Olympic Games also faced strong opposition at that time. Yet because of the non-political nature of Olympics, boycotts never happened. It will never happen in the future because we are not in the Cold War mood anymore.

If the United States decides to boycott while other Western "democracies" choose not to do so, the U.S. will face an awkward situation. The most important reason we should not boycott the Olympics is because if we choose to boycott the entire game, it will be unfair to the athletes who worked so hard to get in the Olympics. If the athletes lose their right to compete for their home country, can we say that the U.S. is a democratic country after a boycott? In a nutshell, Americans shouldn't boycott, period.

—Gary Wang, student in finance from Yantai, China

Western media have unfairly demonized China

The debate concerning whether America should boycott the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony reminds me of a thick and heavy wall that stands between China and the rest of the world. The Olympics, since its establishment, has always been a symbol for world peace and friendship. Now it has been defamed by political factors. It’s time for the world to recall the Olympic spirits and set the game to its right path.

As a Chinese who had worked for a non-profit organization aiming to boost the development of Tibet (the Tibet Development Fund), I have been to Tibet for a few times. Instead of a happy, idyllic land of monks, before 1949, Tibet was but a feudal aristocracy in the guise of religious authority and enforced by violence. The majority people were serfs denied education and social mobility — 95 percent of Tibetan commoners were sentenced to a life of servitude and placed in a crude caste system enforced by religious doctrine.

Yet things have been changed since 1949. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land, and the Tibetan people are our loved family members. Tibetan people are now well fed, well clothed and well housed, and they enjoy religious freedom. Today the average Tibetan is happy to be part of China, as it has been since 700 years ago.

Growing up in an era when China is opening up to the world, I used to have romantic views about the West. However, I feel extremely disappointed and angry this time at the western media’s attempt to demonize China by crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a “crackdown.”

It sounds more ridiculous to me that of those who protested loudly, many probably have not been to Tibet. Why such generalized accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly they mean? Why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support? The Western media need to make an effort to earn respect. Western media would be more credible if the issues they care and write about are of today's China, not of things that do not exist or of the long gone past.

I hope more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China.

The world has waited for China to join it, yet China also waits for the world to understand her. The Beijing Olympics provides such a great chance for us to know each other. It will certainly educate the Chinese people about the world and the world about China. If America boycotted the Olympic opening ceremony, instead of showing her righteousness, would only tell the world her ignorance and shortsightedness.

—Minran Pu, President of KU Chinese Students & Scholars Friendship Association

Olympics, politics have been (and will always be) married

Whether we like it or not, politics will remain entangled within the Olympic matrix until it is no longer conducted. Since the modern Olympics began in 1896, there has been a political aspect that is impossible to separate from the event.

In 1916, the Olympic Games were canceled because of World War I. In 1936, Hitler used the Munich games to promote his Aryan agenda. In 1972, Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes at the summer games in Munich. These are only some of the more notable of countless occasions when the Olympics has been made into a worldwide political stage.

Why can't the Olympics just be fun and games? What is it that drives people to involve politics into these seemingly benign sorts of events?

When people compete in the Olympics, they are not wearing uniforms that advertise Adidas or Nike — the uniforms worn by Olympic athletes proudly display the name of the home country of each athlete.

Just as soldiers in the Army would wear an American flag patch on their uniforms, so too do the athletes of the Olympics.

But the tie between athletics and politics runs deeper than that. Since man (and I do stress man) began competing, sports have been an often overt allegory for war. The jousts of the Middle Ages allowed some of the best knights to show off their war-waging skills, and football is a modern sport that is by no means subtle in alluding to battle.

When Olympians suit up, strap in or take aim, they carry the weight of not only their own hopes and dreams but those, too, of the men and women of their respective countries. Their shots, strokes and strides represent the strength of an identity belonging to something greater than themselves, and the anthem strikes a chord with anyone calling the name on the winner's jersey home.

Whether we like it or not, it should be evident that politics and the Olympics will remain married to one another in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, as long as they both shall live.

—Ryan Shaffer, senior from Omaha

Visit China, Tibet before making decisions about Games

Boycotting the opening ceremony in Beijing isn’t going to generate any truly positive outcome.

Someone might stop reading this thinking, “Of course the Chinese students are not in favor of the boycotting, not surprising” or, “They are brain-washed. They don’t know the truth.”

I guess it doesn’t hurt to know what kind of opinion the “brain-washed” people have, especially if you are interested in helping them.

People talk about boycotting the opening ceremony in Beijing because of recent problems in Tibet. The Chinese government is assumed to be responsible for this. People learn about all these through the media and form their own opinions based on what they see.

We strongly feel an overwhelming wave of recent media distortion. The tones are well defined from the very beginning: “peaceful demonstrations” vs. “brutal repression,” and the news stories are presented within this set framework.

Aside from the cropped pictures and misidentified videos, does one see much truth from the (non-Chinese) news? I assume what the Chinese news says is generally dismissed. If you go to YouTube and search for the videos by tourists in Tibet, you might see a different story from what the media say.

We Chinese students overseas are the people who bridge the two totally different worlds. We are the medium through which different experience and information exchanges. We are also the first effected ones in such a cultural, ideological or even political argument.

People of my generation have been living in a China that has been continuously improving its standard of living, as well as freedom and openness, since we were young.

We are very surprised that at the moment when everything is getting better and better (and will continue doing so), more Western people started to try to “rescue” us from the so-called "the world's largest dictatorship.” Where were the rescuers before? Why do they start to feel urgent about pushing things further just when things start to move?

Come and see a true, undistorted China, a China that many of the western media will not show you. Visit Tibet. Witness the so-called "cultural genocide" with your own eyes, to see whether this genocide really exists, whether the Tibetan language is disappearing, whether those lamas are not free in their religion and whether the great majorities of Tibetans are leading more miserable lives than when under the theocracy before the 1950s.

Whom do the Olympics belong to? The Olympics belong to you, to us, to every people in this world. This is not a political game.

We sincerely hope there is not a hostile feeling dividing the American and Chinese people, which is neither rational nor constructive.

We warmly welcome all of you to the Olympics. For those who are planning on disgracing China when they are in Beijing, they are welcome, too. Just make sure they get insurance with good liability coverage for what they are planning to do.

—Hang Wu, doctorate student from Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China

Recent problems show need for communication

The United States shouldn’t boycott the opening ceremony in Beijing.

Media here are using their stereotypes to frame the story for China. I have seldom read any positive story about China here. I was not taught in class that only bad things are newsworthy and only negative news can satisfy the audience.

I strongly support Beijing Olympics, not only because it is a good opportunity for China to open a window to the world and showcase her actual development, but it also is good for the mutual communication and understanding between people from China and countries abroad.

—Dan Wang, graduate student from Shenyang, Liaoning, China

What would you do?

The Olympics is one of few things that can bring most (if not all) members of the big Earth family together. Why not give China a chance to have the rest of world see China in our own eyes before making judgment solely based on what they hear and read?

Yes, China has issues, but let’s face it: No nation is perfect. Boycotting the Beijing Olympics based on these issues is against the Olympic spirit.

What if you hosted a big party and some people don't like you? They won't go, and they will isolate you. What do you think you would do in response?

—Xinkun Wang, staff member in the Higuchi Biosciences Center

WHAT WE SAY

Games marred by greed, hypocrisy

The idea that the Olympics are somehow above politics is ridiculous. Beijing is using the Games as political leverage, as is every single politician using the torch relay as a photo op. If politics can be used in favor of the Olympics, why should it be off limits when pushing for a boycott?

The Olympics have been steeped in politics since the modern Games began in 1896. Giving China a free pass because of its economic importance is ridiculous, especially when these Games are made possible through political oppression in Tibet and arms deals with countries like Sudan.

People have the right to support the Olympics, just as others have the right to protest them. I for one will not be watching these Games, and am sad that a once great sporting event has been damaged by greed and hypocrisy. China doesn’t deserve all of the blame, though. The majority goes to the IOC for gifting Beijing with the Games in the first place.

—Kelsey Hayes, editorial board writer

No point to protest only opening ceremony

If the U.S. wants to protest the Beijing Games at all, they should boycott the entire event, because doing so is the only way to seriously condemn the human rights abuses in China. Sitting out for the opening ceremony but then competing in the games themselves is like proclaiming yourself a vegetarian to your friends as they watch you chew on a mouthful of grilled chicken strips.

The opening ceremony is a bunch of meaningless and empty symbolism anyway. It’s a joke. Nobody watches it, nobody cares about it, and protesting it won’t make a difference if U.S. athletes are out there choking on smog the following morning.

—Ian Stanford, editorial board writer