Author: Brett Fujioka
Both Senator Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have urged President Bush to skip the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies amidst international outcry over China’s crackdown on protestors in Tibet.
I, for one, think that skipping the opening ceremonies would be a bad decision on the President’s part. It’s not that I agree with how China has handled the pro-Tibet protests so much as that I believe that skipping the ceremonies would be an empty and impractical gesture.
For one, the act of boycotting or skipping the opening ceremonies is akin to filling out a ballot in a mock election. It gives a collective of individuals the chance to mark their disapproval towards a political entity, but it doesn’t allow them to demonstrate why their mark is necessary. By appearing at both the opening ceremonies and the Olympics, world leaders will have the opportunity to actually engage with Chinese officials and express their thoughts concerning Tibet, as well as Burma and Darfur.
One of the criticisms aimed at the Bush Administration was its refusal to directly engage in talks with rogue nations like North Korea and Iran. By attending the opening ceremonies, Bush would actually be defying his as-of-yet failed diplomacy and asserting his say with Chinese officials. I’ll give China the benefit of the doubt and presume that they don’t know the extent to which they are funding the ongoing violence in Darfur. China’s opposition to Tibet seems immutable, and, as much as I love the Dalai Lama, the mass slaughter of innocents on a genocidal level in Sudan takes precedent over the deaths of a few.
The notion that, by skipping the ceremonies, the President would send a message of global anger towards China is equally as absurd. It goes without saying that Bush is already a lame-duck President. At the same time, Bush isn’t exactly the best role model for world leadership.
It’s true that America’s reputation as a paragon for economic and military prowess puts it on the world’s center stage, but the Bush Administration’s reckless mishandling of the Iraq War, along with a slew of other interior scandals, has rendered itself disreputable. The Chinese government could easily dismiss Bush’s absence at the opening ceremonies as another instance of him being a jerk without acknowledging the weight of the message he is trying to send.
Skipping the Olympics is like giving a stranger the finger without explaining to him what he did wrong. The politicians who have decided to skip either the opening ceremonies or the games themselves have missed a good opportunity to explain to China why they’re in the wrong.
Now all of this is fine if the President decides to discuss issues concerning Tibet, Darfur and Burma with other Chinese officials and diplomats during the games. However, he has been quoted as saying, “I don’t view the Olympics as a political event. I view it as a sporting event.” This gives me all the more reason to assume that even if he has the intention of discussing political concerns with other world powers, the games themselves will distract him from these matters.
Keep in mind that this is the same President who was focused primarily on eating pork during a press conference in Stralslund, Germany, and continuously reverted press attention to his eating habits, even as reporters raised questions concerning Israel and Iran.
I’m crossing my fingers in hopes that our esteemed leader doesn’t do anything too embarrassing at the World Games this summer. The optimistic side of me prays that our President will actually make use of his final year in office and that he will decide to make a beneficial impact on world conflict by addressing issues such as Darfur, Burma and Tibet with world leaders over the course of his time at this summer’s games.
Brett Fujioka is a senior ECLS major. He can be reached at bfujioka@oxy.edu.
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