Shame! Shame! Shame on China! -- China Lists Dos and Don’ts for
Olympics-Bound Foreigners

-- Micky's humble opinion: Is this the "Olympic Spirit" with Chinese
Characteristics? It seems Beijing Olympic does not welcome any visitors
with a free-thingking mind. What a joke! --

June 3, 2008

China Lists Dos and Don’ts for Olympics-Bound Foreigners

By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG ― Do not bring any printed materials critical of China. Do not
plan on holding any rallies or demonstrations in China. Do not think
that you are guaranteed an entry visa because you hold tickets to an
Olympic event. And do not even think about smuggling opium into China.

That is some of the eclectic advice issued by the Beijing Organizing
Committee on Monday, in a document listing 57 questions that foreign
visitors to the Olympic Games in August may have: “Does China have any
regulation against insults to the flag or national emblems?” “After
eating or drinking at restaurants or hotels, if you have diarrhea or
vomiting symptoms, how do you lodge a complaint?”

The advisory to foreigners, posted on the committee’s Web site, but only
in Chinese, provides answers for each question in a deadpan style.
(Burning or soiling the Chinese flag or emblems is a criminal offense;
food poisoning symptoms are to be reported to the local health
department.) Some of the rules, like a ban on religious or political
banners or slogans at Olympic sites, appear aimed at preventing protests
of China’s crackdown in Tibet this year and other Chinese policies.

The Beijing Organizing Committee took pains at the start of the document
to say that all the answers were based on existing Chinese regulations.
The International Olympic Committee had no immediate response on Monday
to the rules. Its position on freedom of expression issues as they
relate to the Olympics is not entirely clear.

“A person’s ability to express his or her opinion is a basic human right
and as such does not need to have a specific clause in the Olympic
Charter because its place is implicit,” said Jacques Rogge, the
president of the International Olympic Committee, at a meeting in
Beijing in April.

But Mr. Rogge also pointed out at the time that the International
Olympic Committee had a rule for more than half a century that “no kind
of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is
permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or areas.”

The advisory issued by the Beijing Organizing Committee includes a ban
on bringing into China “anything detrimental to China’s politics,
economy, culture or moral standards, including printed material, film
negatives, photos, records, movies, tape recordings, videotapes, optical
discs and other items.”

All rallies, demonstrations and marches, at athletic sites or anywhere
else, are also banned during the Games unless approved in advance by
public security agencies, a longstanding policy in China even when no
Games or other big events are being held.

Before being awarded the Olympics, China promised in 2001 to improve its
human rights record. But China and the International Olympic Committee
have never released the text of their contract for the Olympic Games, in
contrast with other recent Olympic host cities.

Nicholas Bequelin, the Hong Kong-based China researcher for Human Rights
Watch, an advocacy group, said China had chosen a very broad
interpretation of the Olympic restriction on political and religious
activity. “It is a slippery slope, and the Games in Beijing are testing
the limit,” he said.

Jill Savitt, the executive director of Dream for Darfur, which wants
China to put more pressure on the Sudanese government to bring peace to
the Darfur region in western Sudan, said the group had been considering
ways to protest in Beijing during the Olympics, like having visitors
wear green, a color associated with Sudan.

But the earthquake last month, together with the controversy over the
sometimes violent protests by Tibet supporters during the Olympic torch
relay, has prompted Dream for Darfur to reassess its plans, and no
decision has been made, she said.