Mr. Rogge is so foolish that all that works is to quote him. Give China time. It is not China that will change, but the government. Today the government is the cadre. It is a thief. No learning curve. The Torch approaches Japan. Liberty looms.
Olympics chief tells west not to hector China
By Roger Blitz in London and Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: April 25 2008 09:41 | Last updated: April 26 2008 02:29
The west must stop hectoring China over human rights, the Olympics chief has warned, even as Beijing on Friday showed the first signs of bowing to international protests by saying it would hold talks with aides to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.
“You don’t obtain anything in China with a loud voice,” said Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee. This was the “big mistake of people in the west”.
“It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949,” he said, a time when the UK and other European nations were also colonial powers, “with all the abuse attached to colonial powers”.
“It was only 40 years ago that we gave liberty to the colonies. Let’s be a little bit more modest.”
Mr Rogge was speaking to the Financial Times ahead of Beijing’s announcement on Friday that it would resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese government has previously blamed for triggering last month’s violent protests in Tibet.
Pro-Tibet protests have since overshadowed the Olympic torch relay in Europe, the US, India and Australia, which has in turn provoked a backlash in China against the west and calls to boycott foreign goods.
Xinhua, China’s official news agency, quoted an unnamed official saying the government hoped the Dalai side would “take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, plotting and inciting violence and disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games”.
The announcement of the talks coincided with a visit to Beijing by a Brussels delegation led by José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, who met Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, on Friday.
Mr Barroso welcomed the news of the talks, as did the White House and other western governments.
Mr Rogge also told the FT the IOC always believed awarding the 2008 Games to Beijing would “open up China”, and that in time this would happen.
“The Games we believe, over time, will have a good influence on social evolution in China, and the Chinese admit it themselves,” he said.
Mr Rogge questioned whether media attention on Tibet would be as strong if the Games were not taking place in Beijing. “I wonder if Tibet would be front page today were it not that the Games are being organised in Beijing. It would probably be page 4 or 5,” he said.
Mr Rogge said China had given significant ground to the IOC by opening access to foreign media for the Olympics, which he expected to be extended beyond 2008 and believed would be a key factor in the social evolution of the country. China had also responded to IOC concerns about pollution in Beijing and child labour, he added.
“We have been able to achieve something. I am not quite sure that heads of government have achieved much more than we have done,” Mr Rogge said.
The Games would continue to be awarded to cities with the best technical bids, and were for the benefit of athletes rather than for international political evolution, but “if at the same time they can bring something for the region of the country, yes, fine”.
South Korea, he pointed out, was a military dictatorship when it was awarded the 1988 Games, and became a vibrant democracy soon after staging them. “The Games played a key role, again by the presence of media people,” he said.
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