Lies, Censorship, Oppression -- Let's Go to Beijing!

The Olympics start in Beijing next week. Yay. The Chinese government is reneging on its promise to the IOC and the world that foreign reporters would have full access to the Internet to do their jobs during the Olympics.

Permit me to join the ranks of the [sarcasm] vile disruptive websites [end sarcasm] the Chinese won't let reporters (or a billion Chinese citizens) read, sites like the Falun Dafa Information Center, the Tibet Government-in-Exile, and Amnesty International. In honor of our [sarcasm] gracious and forthright hosts [end sarcasm], the Chinese government, here's another post to remind us of the tyranny we play with in sending our athletes to Beijing:

Excerpt from Thirty-Eighth Group Army, People's Liberation Army of China, "Accomplish the mission, conscientiously complete the martial law task," report to the Central Military Commission, June 8, 1989. Published in The Tiananmen Papers, compiled by Zhang Liang, edited by Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link, New York: PublicAffairs, 2001, p. 391:

The clearing itself began at 4:30 a.m. on June 4. Two thousand soldiers in artillery abrigades and engineering regiments, plus forty-two armored vehicles of the 112th Division, in cooperation with fraternal units, cleared the Square, moving from north to south. Prior to that we captured six rioters—including Guo Haifeng, member of the Standing Committee and secretary general of the AFS—who were trying to burn down the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and we smashed the Goddess of Democracy, which was the rioters' spiritual pillar.

Then, led by foot soldiers, armored cars drove the crowd in the Square southward toward Zhengyangmen and quickly set up a cordon there, thus triumphantly completing our duty to clear the Square. In clearing the Square the officers and soldiers of our army and our fraternal armies maintained the highest degree of self-control from start to finish and did not kill a single person with rifle fire. Throughout the Square-clearing operations, which the whole world was watching, our army not only served the intimidation function that a mechanized army can achieve but also did a good job of displaying the image of a fearless people's army devoted to its duty.

Well, we all know sports and politics don't mix. Athletes should just run and keep their mouths shut... just like the Chinese government made its people do in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Have fun in Beijing.