Pesky Dissidents Will Spend the Olympics in Jail

The Chinese government is determined to have an "harmonious" Olympics Games. And if you hold any grievances against the regime, this is the worst time to air them.

The Washington Post's Edward Cody reports from Beijing that, "The Olympic Games have become the occasion for a broad crackdown against dissidents, gadflies and malcontents this summer. Although human rights activists say they have no accurate estimate of how many people have been imprisoned, they believe the figure to be in the thousands."

Cody's reports confirms once more what we have been reporting for quite sometime, that dissent will not be tolerated and that the regime will have their day in the sun, come rain or shine.

The article quotes Nicholar Bequelin, of Human Rights in China, as saying "The Olympics have reversed the clock" referring to the fact that seven years ago the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee declared that the Games "would not only promote our economy but also enhance all social conditions, including education, health and human rights."

Barlequin adds that, in view of so many world leaders endorsing the Beijing regime by announcing they will attend the opening ceremonies, "the opportunity for foreign governments to use the Olympics to pressure China on human rights has passed in any case. It is a new low for the international community to see all these state leaders going to Beijing without saying anything about the repressive environment in which the Games are being held."

Meantime, dissidents in China are having a harder time to vent their grievances than in recent years because the regime will go to extremes in order to hide their dirty laundry.

Cody quotes human rights activists as saying, "Security forces seem determined to prevent those and other dissidents from finding an echo in the media, particularly the foreign media that have been reinforced in China during the Olympic period. To do so, they said, authorities have devised a panoply of measures ranging from warnings, intimidation, surveillance, travel restrictions and house arrest to outright detention."

Reporters without Borders rejected this lack of access and compared it to the methods of another dictatorial regime.

"These measures unfortunately recall those adopted by the Soviet police during the 1980 Olympics Games, when dissidents were forced to leave Moscow," the press freedom organization said in a new release.

And the Chinese government calls all this "harmonious."