Sunday July 1, 2001

China's dictators are not the first to try to exploit the Olympic spirit: Hitler did it in 1936 and the Soviets again in 1980. It should not be permitted to happen again.

For sporting values at their very best are human-rights values. Both hold up fair play, equality and universalism. It is for this reason that sport rightly boycotted South Africa's apartheid regime.

We cannot expect the International Olympic Commission to make the world a perfect place; their own murky affairs present a more immediate challenge. But we can expect the IOC to be sensitive to holding games in countries that fly in the face of those human-rights ideals. The Olympic Village - wherever it is located - is not cut off from its surroundings; Olympic values are reflected in the choice of the host nation.

In the case of China this is particularly true. [...] It [...] sends those that it disapproves of - like the practitioners of Falun Gong - to brutal 're-education' centres. So far there has been little evidence that the would-be organisers of the Beijing Games are sensitive to such international concerns. Rather, it appears the reverse is true.

The Chinese people may want the Olympics very badly. Indeed China, as one of the world's largest and important nations, deserves to host them in the future. But a regime which daily adds to an appalling catalogue of human-rights abuses must reform first, not make vague promises to do so later.

Toronto or Paris could host the Olympics in the spirit of Sydney 2000. For Beijing, 2008 is far too soon.