Canada should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Written - March 30, 2008

Canada should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics not only to help Tibet, but to help Darfur as well. Images of Tibetan protestors have dominated news over the last week, but China’s other major human rights violation remains largely unheard. China has been the major arms supplier to the Sudanese government since the 1990’s and also Sudan’s largest market for oil exports. In reality, the genocide in Darfur has not simply been a case of ethnic tensions in Sudan, but also been a case of Chinese economics.

Since the early 1990’s, China has been heavily invested in the oil producing regions of southern Sudan and currently benefits from the 500 000 barrels a day production. China needs Sudanese oil in order to help buffer itself from the expenses of a declining world oil reserves and human rights don’t seem to influence China’s economic decisions, to put it politely. China has flaunted its veto power at the UN Security Council in order to protect the Sudanese government from international sanctions and has supported the government in blocking UN troop deployment while genocide has continued.

The context of this oil dependence is that China seems to have completely immersed itself in the ‘race to the bottom’ economy of high personal consumption based on non-renewable resources. That isn’t to say that Western countries aren’t responsible for this trend – China’s boom has been a result of supplying cheap commodities to the West. However, a recent report has highlighted that SUV sales in China for 2007 were up 58 percent over 2006 levels, representing 370 000 new vehicles on the road and new personal status symbols.

However, boycotting the Olympics today is more than government’s taking a political stance. Corporations invest heavily in the Olympics for marketing campaigns and see little benefit in halting the games to save non-marketable regions of the world. We all know these corporations influence government decisions and besides, the West doesn’t intend to upset China right now anyway. However, enough genocide has been committed over the past 100 years that it is time for citizens in every nation to say enough is enough. We know our athletes train hard and we want to support them, but the world has brutal realities at times and the China’s human rights are one of them.