Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history,” affirmed Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games certainly evoke the name Tibet, cinnamon-robed Buddhist monks and a peace-loving and non-violent Dalai Lama seeking freedom for his repressed people. However, the Chinese authorities have a totally different view; they regard Tibet as a part of China historically and consider the Dalai Lama and his followers obscurantist reactionaries who are against the economic and social progress that the Chinese government has brought to a backward culture over the past 58 years.
According to the authorities in Beijing, all protests by Buddhist monks and other Tibetans result from a conspiracy mounted by the Dalai Lama from his exile headquarters in Dharamsala. According to the Chinese official version, the Dalai Lama led a violent uprising with the help of CIA after Chinese troops imposed rule from Beijing in 1950. The subversion campaign failed, and the Dalai Lama was forced in 1959 to flee to India, where he has lived in exile for half a century. So, for Beijing, the Dalai Lama is less a devout non-violent Buddhist than a secessionist rebel.
But after the crackdown on Tibetan protesters in Lhasa, the worst in the last two decades, Beijing is being watched closely and condemned by the international community, particularly since the Olympics are around the corner. Now, China is worried that protests in Tibet may draw the world’s attention to Tibet, and away from the Olympic Games.
It is true that in theory, the Olympic Games are meant to be about sport rather than politics, but the promotion of the Olympic spirit includes upholding ethics in sport and encouraging the respect of human rights.
The Olympic Charter and Code of Ethics explicitly refer to the concept of human rights and dignity
The continuing evidence of persecution and human rights abuses by the Chinese government in Tibet cannot be reconciled with the Olympic Spirit set out in Article 1 of the Olympic Charter, which seeks “respect for universal fundamental ethical principles”.
The choice of Beijing to host the 2008 Olympic Games, without concerns about the human rights situation, is against the ethics of Olympic Games that are based on “the spirit of humanism, fraternity and respect for individuals which inspires the Olympic ideal”, and which requires “the governments of countries that are to host the Olympic Games to undertake that their countries will scrupulously respect the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter” (IOC Code of Ethics).