At the end of the Athens 2004 Games International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said the signs were there that Asia would be a strong force at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He said, “there has been major progress of China, the extraordinary progress of Japan, but also Korea and Indonesia”.
Regarding the human rights issue that still confronts China, Rogge said it was not for the IOC to monitor human rights, but that the IOC would listen to organizations whose job it is to monitor them.
He said, “human rights should be respected as much as possible and the Chinese leaders have said the Olympic Games will change their society”.
Meanwhile, a day after the Summer Games were passed on to Beijing, activists campaigning for better human rights in Tibet urged the IOC to pressure China to improve its record.
At a news conference in Beijing, representatives of overseas groups that support calls for more autonomy for Tibet said the IOC should warn China that its right to host the Games would be revoked if there is no improvement in its human rights’ record.
Paul Bourke of the Australia Tibet Council said, “the IOC should further establish benchmarks to determine the basis for an eventual reconsideration of the location of the 2008 Olympics in the event of a lack of improvement or further deterioration of the human rights situation in China and Tibet”.
Two activists of the International Tibet Support Network, which represents more than 100 groups around the world backing Tibet, later unfurled a giant red banner on a bridge near the site of Olympic venues under construction that read in English “No Olympics for China until Tibet is free”.
On Sunday, several Tibet activists unfurled a protest flag in the main Olympic stadium complex in Athens.
Reynolds called on China to use the Games as a chance to rekindle its engagement with representatives of the Dalai Lama.
Still, the Beijing Games are expected to attract the world’s largest companies such as Visa, General Electric and Samsung. All three companies have paid $79 million each for the right to use Olympic images in their advertising campaigns.
And Visa International Inc. wants to become a 2008 Olympic sponsor to extend its card market in China.
