Misguided CCP Policies: Politicizing Pork and Depoliticizing the Olympic Games

According to a Financial Times report in August 2007, the official pork supplier for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will raise pigs with organic feed in an isolated place, meaning no hormones or similar chemicals will be used, thus providing athletes with safe pork. But it will take between one and three months more than the usual way pigs are raised. However, Qianxihe Group, the supplier, was not intimidated and said, "We are the exclusive pork supplier to the Olympic Games. This is a political task, and cost is not a factor in a political task."

The "politicizing" of raising pigs has become the object of ridicule among Chinese Internet users, and some people commented, "The pigs within the system are most fortunate!" Of course, this is not to say that the Chinese communist regime respects pigs' rights; but rather they are showing respect for foreigners' wellbeing. And thus there are people who ask, "Now that foreigners are safe, what about us Chinese?"

The "politicizing" of raising pigs is every bit in line with Beijing's practice of linking everything with politics, so it came as no surprise. Both the government propaganda and its actions indicate that communist China has treated hosting the Olympic Games as a major political undertaking, even prior to winning its bid to host the Games. In its publicity campaign overseas and at home, the regime has never overlooked the political significance of holding the Olympics in Beijing, nor has it ever concealed it. In early 2007, Liu Qi, politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the party chief of Beijing City, said, "The Olympic Games is inseparable with state politics and state security. It is important that the [issues of] safety and security during the games be handled as a serious political task."

It's funny, though, that, as the countdown for the Beijing Olympic Games started, the CCP propaganda mouthpiece has loudly played the tune of depoliticizing the games. Ostensibly, "depoliticizing" means that the Beijing games should be disassociated with political issues. The announcement sounds like showing respect for the Olympic spirit and not letting politics tarnish sports. There are people both overseas and in China echoing it.

Of course, "depoliticizing" would be fully justified if communist China was truly respecting the Olympic spirit and the principle of peaceful and fair participation; if it wanted to promote peace and justice in China through holding the games so that the people in China would no longer suffer persecution for political reasons; and if it would not try to prevent athletes of all ethnic groups all over the world from participating in the games based on political, cultural, and religious grounds.

Unfortunately, the CCP had none of those in mind. In early April 2007, the Ministry of Public Security of China sent a secret notice to the Public Security Offices at the provincial, regional, and city levels, demanding strict scrutiny of the backgrounds of applicants for the games and trial games. The notice excluded 43 types of people in 11 categories abroad and in China from the entering the gate of the Olympic Games. They include, among others, targeted people with problems in "ideological" areas, Falun Gong practitioners, people with serious complaints against the party and government, and those who grumble to foreigners in partnership with "overseas hostile forces." In the eyes of the CCP, the Olympic Games is an opportunity to show off its "excellent" human rights record. This is one of the CCP's main purposes for holding the Games. Thus, the CCP will try to silence any dissenting voices that may reveal its evil deeds at all costs.

Xinhuanet.com commented, "The Olympic Games is more than a grand sports gathering; it is more of a reflection of a state or a region's overall strength. It is a testing ground for a nation's comprehensive capabilities and the degree of its social civility." Clearly, the CCP has not bothered to hide its motive to regard the Olympic Games as an opportunity for a show. The fact is that neither "the comprehensive capabilities" nor "the degree of its social civility" is separable from politics, as both inevitably involve the question of whether a nation has in place the civilized political and legal systems that will guarantee social justice and its citizens' fundamental rights.

But the CCP's record is characterized by murdering people, persecuting righteous faiths, and suppressing dissenting voices, and now it wants to seize the opportunity of hosting the Olympic Games to clear its name and pretend to the civilized world that it has never committed any atrocities. So now it energetically persecutes dissidents, attacks anyone who dares to expose its evil deeds, and covers up its ugly face under the banner of "upholding the dignity of the Chinese nation." One example is that the CCP has long given out the task of "thoroughly eliminating Falun Gong before the start of the Olympic Games."

Recently the CCP has mouthed high-sounding words about "depoliticizing the Olympic Games" because, of late, the international community has continuously accused Beijing of its non-stop crimes of persecuting its own citizens, an affront to the Olympic spirit. On August 9th 2007, human rights supporters and representatives from various fields from Europe, Americas, Asia, and Australia gathered at the birthplace of the Olympic Games and lit the Human Rights Torch, starting the one-year journey of the global Human Rights Torch Relay. The themes of the Human Rights Torch Relay are: "Stop the persecution and return my rights" and "Prevent the noble and pure Olympic Games from being tarnished by blood." The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), the sponsor of the Human Rights Torch Relay, especially stressed the need to stop the largest and the most heinous human rights disaster in China, namely the brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, especially the criminal act of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

In short, the depoliticizing of the Olympic Games is not what the CCP is really interested in. In 1980, when a large number of countries in the world boycotted the Moscow Olympic Games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, didn't the CCP join in the action, too? Right now what the CCP really cares about is that it might lose the opportunity to show off and to conceal its evil deeds if the international community boycotts the Beijing Olympic Games because of Beijing's poor human rights record. It only shows that the CCP has not changed its nature and it does not have the intention of laying down its murder weapons. In truth, it would be easy for the CCP to dissemble the 610 Office and all its branches that have been set up nationwide to persecute Falun Gong, to release all illegally held Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience and ideology, to lift the information blockade, to stop allocating funds for monitoring and arresting people. All of these measures are really simple and are not hard to implement, as they do not need extra funds. In fact, resources for persecution would be saved and put to better use. Behind "the depoliticizing of the Olympic Games" hides the CCP's cruel nature of wilfulness and stubbornness.

Some Chinese who have been misled echo the CCP propaganda, confusing the dignity of the Chinese nation with the CCP's image. Actually, concealing the CCP's crimes amounts to the Chinese people further losing face. The CCP persecutes the Chinese people, and if one remained indifferent toward the suffering of one's own compatriots, or even muddle-headedly took the CCP's image for one's own dignity, it would be a shame for the nation. How could such behaviour win respect from the world? Are there any Germans today still proud of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games hosted by Hitler?

The truth is that only those who are spreading the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, promoting the withdrawals from communist organizations, and working toward an end to the CCP's crimes will win the respect of the world, and will demonstrate to the global community the spiritual demeanour of a Chinese nation that stands tall.