The China Complex

As China gears up for Summer Olympics 2008, Darfurian activists gear up for a protest. This year’s summer Olympics are becoming known as “The Genocide Olympics” as China continues to supply the Sudanese government with artillery –the artillery that kills Darfurians. The supply perpetuates a mass murder in the name of bigotry, discrimination and hate, a contradiction in terms for the Olympics, a game played to unite the globe. As the New York Times puts it “ …those of us who admire China’s accomplishments find it difficult to give credit when Beijing simultaneously underwrites the ultimate crime of genocide.”
China’s power in the Sudan cannot be underestimated, according to Nicholas Kristof:
Other countries also must do much more, but China is crucial. If Beijing were to suspend all transfers of arms and spare parts to Sudan until a peace deal is reached in Darfur, then that would change the dynamic. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan would be terrified — especially since he is now preparing to resume war with South Sudan — and would realize that China is no longer willing to let its Olympics be stained by Darfuri blood.

Kristof brings to light our global responsibility. Should we boycott? But beyond China’s sinful hand in the Darfur Genoicide, don’t the Chinese people themselves need rescuing? Having a mother who frequents the country and having traveled to China myself, I recall the Chinese country-side as a devastatingly impoverished place begging for economic stimulation. Wouldn’t the Olympics give it that? But at what cost?