Time to get real on China
When Democratic presidential candidates Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama urged US President George W Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony, they either forgot or ignored the big applause that the Americans gave to China when the world's most populous nation decided to participate in the Los Angeles Games despite the Soviet Union-led boycott, says a commentary of Xinhua News Agency. The following is an excerpt:
Fourteen countries boycotted that Games in 1984, in an action seen as a retaliation for the US-led snub on Moscow four years earlier. Cold War rivalries hurt two Olympics and the Olympic spirit.
But suddenly, boycotting the Beijing Games has become an "in" thing as more people are jumping onto the bandwagon, acting as human rights defenders to woo their voters or peddling the idea of a "Free Tibet". How come it is justified now to turn the Olympic Games into a political battlefield?
