From The New York Post
By Jonathan Zimmerman
I LOVE everything about sports, but when the Olympic Games start later this week in Beijing, I’m not going to watch. And neither should you. Call it the People’s Boycott.
Despite worldwide protests, every major nation is sending its athletes to Beijing. That’s all the more reason for you and I to stage our own silent demonstration. If you want to change the Olympics, change the channel.
From Syracuse.com – Rep. James Walsh delivered a blunt message to the Chinese ambassador in a private meeting this week, telling him to stop “rewriting history” when it comes to Tibet.
Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong met behind closed doors Wednesday with Walsh and five other members of Congress to discuss recent violence in Tibet and the Chinese crackdown on dissent.
Before the meeting, Walsh backed a Republican bill that would ban President Bush and other U.S. officials from attending the opening ceremonies of this summer’s Olympics in China.
From CNN – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Bush should consider boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympics Games in Beijing this summer to protest China’s human rights record.
“I think boycotting the opening ceremony, which really gives respect to the Chinese government, is something that should be kept on the table,” Pelosi told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts in an interview to air Tuesday morning, according to the ABC News Web site. “I think the president might want to rethink this later, depending on what other heads of state do.”
From CNN – China’s carefully managed international media tour of Tibet’s capital ran into a public-relations roadblock Thursday — a protest by screaming Buddhist monks at a holy shrine.
Beijing invited about two dozen international journalists to tour Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, to show them the city is calm after recent anti-China protests. The tour marked the first time foreign reporters had been allowed into Tibet since the unrest began two weeks ago.
From AFP – US President George W. Bush voiced concern over the crackdown in Tibet as another European leader Thursday vowed to shun the Beijing Olympics, which China says are being scuttled by the Dalai Lama.
A White House statement said Bush telephoned his Chinese counterpart and underscored the needs for talks between Beijing and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
From Daily Times – China moved Wednesday to show it had the situation in Tibet under control, escorting foreign journalists on a tour of the region and saying more than 660 people had surrendered over deadly unrest.
The media trip came as Chinese state-run press and online forums ramped up criticism over Western reporting about the unrest, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The small delegation of selected foreign journalists landed in Lhasa on Wednesday for a three-day reporting trip.
From Associated Press – French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Tuesday a boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was a possibility _ the first world leader to raise the prospect of punishing China over its ongoing crackdown in Tibet.
The United States, Britain and Germany all condemned China for using force against Tibetan protesters, but they stopped short of threatening to boycott the games or the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.
From CNN – Tibet’s exile government said the death toll from protests in the Himalayan region over the past two weeks has reached about 140, but Chinese government restrictions have made it difficult confirm the number killed.
Chinese authorities have issued a much lower death toll and said most of those killed were “innocent” ethnic Han Chinese targeted by rampaging Tibetans.
