More Than Olympic Gold at Stake in China

By Doug Carlson - Aug 5, 2008

All eyes are on China this week as the 2008 Summer Olympic Games officially commence Friday. Millions will tune in over the course of more than two weeks to watch the world’s greatest athletes compete for their sport’s highest honor, Olympic gold.

Yet for all the promised fanfare and feats of strength and endurance, China’s colored history on human rights and denial of religious freedom will no doubt cast a dark shadow over the Games.

To adequately describe the grim conditions in the People’s Republic of China is a challenge of almost Olympic proportions in itself. Among the Chinese government’s grievances:

  • imprisonment of those found practicing a religion not recognized by the state;
  • repression of minority groups including Tibetans and practitioners of Falun Gong;
  • strict enforcement of a one-child policy, coercing abortions and forcing sterilizations;
  • repatriation of North Korean refugees back to the work camps they escaped or to beatings and possible execution; and
  • political and military aid to rogue foreign governments such as Sudan and Burma that repress their own people.

The list continues ad nauseum.

The fallout from China’s one-child policy, in place for nearly 30 years, is fast becoming evident. Nearly 117 boys are born for every 100 girls, and in some regions the ratio is as high as 130 to 100. This “gendercide,” as Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) describes it, is estimated to leave between 30 million and 40 million Chinese men looking for wives and found wanting by 2020.

But this form of evil only spawns another. Women and girls from other parts of East Asia will largely fill the marital void—many of them purchased for a stranger’s pleasure and servitude, others cast to the streets as victims of sex trafficking.

So gruesome is China’s record on human rights that the House of Representatives passed a resolution last week 419-1 condemning China’s injustices and calling on the Chinese government “to immediately end abuses of the human rights of its citizens” to ensure that the Games “take place in an atmosphere that honors the Olympic traditions of freedom and openness.”

The stir over the Chinese government’s systematic abuse and repression of its people spans the international community. A cross-section of people from diverse political and religious persuasions has called upon world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies in protest.

President Bush, feeling perhaps the greatest pressure to skip the ceremonies, has nonetheless determined to make his physical presence known in order to show his support for the spirit of the Games and to “carry the message of freedom” to Beijing. An ardent defender of freedom and the 2006 recipient of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s John Leland Religious Liberty Award, he will also attend a registered church Sunday in the nation of 1.3 billion, tens of millions of whom are Christians living in the shadows.

This could be a defining moment for the United States and for those in China and around the world who are pinned under the weight of repression. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government-appointed watchdog panel on which ERLC President Richard Land serves, has urged the president to send an unequivocal message while in China. Countless others, including five Chinese dissidents who met with the president last week, have appealed for him to do the same.

Failure to raise the specter openly with Chinese President Hu Jintao and others would be a tragic missed opportunity. Much more is at stake in China than gold medals. President Bush should seize this historic moment and help bring the gold of freedom to a suffering people. Indeed, too much is at stake to remain a casual spectator.

If you agree, please call the White House switchboard at (202) 456-1414 and urge President Bush to send a message loud and clear to China that it must end its gross human rights violations, including its one-child policy, and adopt religious freedom.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to fight against religious persecution and to uphold human rights in America and around the world. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on religious liberty, please visit our online bookstore.

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