The Beijing Olympics are approaching but the repression, censorship and disinformation in China have not diminished. Chinese people I speak to in Europe are still so brainwashed that they think Mao Tse Tung was a great leader despite the fact that he was responsible for the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin put together. The Chinese record of supporting unscrupulous regimes like Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge and now Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan is appalling. China censors its press and internet, tramples on and tortures people right left and centre (e.g. Tibet) and gets away with it because of its growing economic power.
It’s difficult to know whether more can be done by staying away from Beijing 2008 or by attending and using it as an opportunity for change. Certainly business-as-usual shouldn’t be an option.