John Kamm, a businessman who campaigns for the release of Chinese political prisoners, urged key U.S. lawmakers not to block China’s bid to host the 2008 Summer Games.
Kamm said at a luncheon in Hong Kong, “passing such a resolution is a lose-lose proposition. If China loses the Games bid, people will blame the U.S. regardless of whether or not the U.S. is in fact to blame”.
Kamm said he hoped several leading Democrats and Republicans would reconsider introducing legislation urging the IOC to reject Beijing’s bid. “If China wins the Games, it will do so in spite of perceived U.S. opposition and allow the government the opportunity to claim a major victory on the human rights front”, he said.
Kamm cited a string of opinion polls done in the United States in recent months and said most Americans do not oppose the choice of Beijing as the site of the 2008 Games.
He said Americans saw the emergence of China more as a problem than a threat and that young people were more favourably disposed toward China than older people.
Kamm also said he was told by Beijing officials last week that some 40 Chinese dissidents jailed for their roles in the 1989 pro-democracy movement had been freed in the past two years ahead of the completion of their original sentences.
