A leading Chinese Olympics official has said that any efforts to link
the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to political issues or boycotts would be
"inappropriate and unpopular".
Biz figures such as Mia Farrow
and sundry human rights groups have seized upon the Olympics as a
chance to exert pressure on China for everything from the conflict in
Darfur, Beijing's support of Myanmar's ruling military junta and the
rights of migrant workers.
"We believe that any political issue
that has nothing to do with the Olympics should not be linked to the
Beijing Games," said Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games.
He was
speaking on the sidelines of the 17th Communist Party National Congress
in Beijing, an important five-yearly gathering that decides issues for
China's ruling communists. The event is expected to confirm President
Hu Jintao's grip on power in the world's most populous nation.
Mia
Farrow has been pushing the Chinese to do more to use their influence
in Sudan to end the massacre in the Sudanese region of Darfur -- and
said that Steven Spielberg, who is helping organize the Olympics' opening ceremony, risked being his generation's Leni Riefenstahl
if he gave tacit support to China's role in Darfur. For its part, China
said that it has done much to help ease the situation there.
Last
week, Human Rights Watch urged China to use its U.N. Security Council
membership to help end state repression in the former Burma after last
month's crackdown on street protests.
Liu, who is deputy mayor of
Beijing, defended his government's role again, saying China had played
a constructive and responsible part in the Myanmar issue.
"We
believe that an attempt to use this issue as an excuse to boycott the
Olympics will be both inappropriate and unpopular," he said.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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