Front Royal, VA, 08/07/08 – As China’s human rights record worsens, the Beijing Olympics are becoming a byword for Beijing’s brutality, says Steven W. Mosher, an internationally recognized China expert.
Far from being the grand "coming-out party" that the Chinese regime hoped for, Mosher contends that the Olympic Games have actually fueled abuses. According to Mosher, as the Olympics approach, the Beijing regime has:
Arrested, imprisoned, and tortured numerous political dissidents.
Broken all of its promises to ensure freedom of the press, speech, and assembly during the Games.
Put in place new control on the Internet.
Destroyed the homes of millions of citizens to make way for new Olympic structures.
Forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of migrant workers.
Introduced restrictive and forceful security measures that infringe on the basic freedoms of thousands of Chinese citizens.
"Beijing has been turned into the world’s largest Potemkin Village," says Mosher. "The streets of Beijing are quiet, but it is the ‘quiet’ of the graveyard. Not only has the Chinese government broken its promises to improve its human rights record, the Games themselves have led this oppressive regime to crack down on dissent on a scale unprecedented since the brutal Cultural Revolution."
Steven Mosher is the director of the Beijing Boycott Coalition, and he invites journalists and human rights organizations around the world to join him in exposing human rights abuses in China. The Coalition’s web site is www.beijingboycottcoalition.com
"China is one of the worst violators of human rights in the world," Mosher explains. "Giving the Chinese Communist Party bragging rights over the games makes a mockery of their meaning."
