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Jewish World Review July 19, 2001 / 28 Tamuz, 5761
Michael Ledeen
I have never understood this argument, since the most famous
modern Olympics — Hitler's Games — undermined the
regime's legitimacy and exposed its vicious racism. The
modern Olympics, indeed, were designed to toughen up
Frenchmen, who had recently been overrun by their German
neighbors in a short and humiliating war. The hope of the
French organizers was that the French people would become
competitive, and thereby provide better cannon fodder to the
Army. (That didn't work very well either; France couldn't
break its unfortunate habit of surrendering to Germany in
every major war).
The Chinese regime is simultaneously arrogant and insecure:
Arrogant in its demand that the rest of the world cater to its
tender sensitivities on all matters (this is the famous "face" we
are constantly told we must permit them to save), and terribly
insecure about its own legitimacy, both at home and abroad.
Only a very nervous bunch of rulers would be murdering its
own citizens at a record pace — they have executed more
people in the last three months than the rest of the world in
the last three years — and dramatically limiting free speech,
access to information, and even simple discussion (Falun
Gong reports that the Chinese Government now treats any
conversation between any two Falun Gong members as an
illegal assembly). And only a highly insecure regime would
use "psychiatry" as a method of political intimidation, recalling
the worst of Soviet mental torture.
Such a regime might have thought twice about the
consequences of bringing the Olympics inside its boundaries.
No doubt, the majority of the hordes and swarms of Western
journalists and broadcasters who will run around the country
for the next seven years will cater to the regime's every whim.
But there will be many who will see some of the terrible things
that are going on, and report them. And many of the tens of
thousands of athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, support
staff, camp followers, fans, tourists and businessmen will
actually speak to some Chinese citizens, and provide them
with some insight into the nature of life in freer societies.
Western democracy is a terribly subversive force, and some
of its power will pass through the bamboo curtain into the
People's Republic. The Chinese see the face-enhancing
aspect of their victory. We should see it as an opportunity to
spread our anti-tyrannical antibodies throughout the land. If
we do it well, then the Olympics may yet be seen as the same
sort of turning point as the Helsinki Agreements we signed
with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. You
may recall that these were widely viewed as an enormous
victory for the Kremlin, because they legitimized Soviet
control over the satellites. But there was a little-known
provision that required the United States to monitor Soviet
human-rights practices, and this became a lethal weapon
against Soviet Communism. It enhanced the status of the
small but highly effective dissident movement, and provided
an international forum for critics of the regime.
In like manner, we should use the Olympics as a lens to focus
the world's attention on the nature of the Chinese regime,
hailing its progress in creating more wealth for some of its
citizens, celebrating its recognition of the importance of
private property, praising its adoption of more transparency
in business transactions, but condemning its use of slave
labor, denouncing its ruthless suppression of basic freedoms
from religious practice to open debate, and encouraging
greater liberalization of the political system.
If we succeed in deflecting the Chinese regime from the
current wave of repression, the Olympics may yet be a
victory for all the Chinese
07/17/01: Consulting a legendary counterspy about Chandra and Condit
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