by all bee

When police in Beijing recently prevented the wife of an imprisoned
Chinese social activist from going to the Philippines to receive a
prestigious international humanitarian award on behalf of her
husband, the international Olympics community should have been

outraged by this brazen Soviet-style thuggery. And yet barely a peep
was heard around the
world. Even Magsaysay Foundation, a private organization, refused to
criticize China.

What is going on here? In the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in
China, the Chinese government forcibly prevents a Chinese citizen from

travelling to a foreign country to receive a humanitarian lleadership award for
her imprisoned husband — a 35-year-old blind man who is behind

bars for unmasking abuses such as forced sterilizations and women
being made to have abortions eight months into term — and the

international Olympics community behaves as if nothing happened. Where
is the world’s conscience today?

Yuan Weijing is the wife of Chen Guangcheng, and she should be free to

travel anywhere in the world. She has a valid passport and a visa from
the Philippines government. What China did to her is immoral,
unconscienable.

Why did the International Olympics
Committee give the 2008 Summer Games to China if this same China is
going to make a mockery of the concepts of freedom and justice and
morality? It’s not as if the IOC wasn’t warned.

This incident should really be proof that China does not

deserve to host the 2008 Olympics. It’s time to call China on the
carpet and stop all preparations for next summer’s Olympics. A country
that does not allow the wife of a jailed man to travel abroad to pick

up an international award for her husband is a country that does not

deserve to host
the Olympics. It’s that simple.

The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, in a statement to the press after the
incident came to light, said that regretted that neither Chen nor his
wife was able to attend the awards ceremony. However, the foundation
added, that as a non-political organization, it respected the right of
every country to make decisions regarding the travel of its citizens.

That’s called a public relations statement.

Carmencita Abella, president of the Magsaysay Foundation, did say that
she was saddened over the Chinese government’s barring of Chen’s wife,
but told a radio reporter in Manila: “We cannot do anything about it.
It’s a decision of the Chinese government, and we cannot interfere
with it”.

“It is sad. He could have inspired many by telling his story. Yet even
his wife was barred from leaving the country. It’s sad that despite
the good you do, you earn the ire of local authorities,” Abella said.
She also told reporters that the foundation will try to find a way to
send Chen or his family the US$50,000 prize the foundation is giving
to its 2007 awardees.

“Even if [Chen is ]not here, the most we can do is to tell everyone of
the good he has done,” Abella said.

A Chinese human rights activist inside China, who was familiar with
the incident, told foreign reporters: “Chen Guangcheng is an sore spot
…because he exposed the dark secrets of ….forced birth control
operations, and his wife keeps exposing the Chinese regime’s human
rights violations to foreign media. She has revealed to the world
facts about the forced birth control, corrupt officials, and the
failing judiciary system.”

When will the international community wake up to the very
“un-Olympics” spirit of the current Chinese communist regime? If China
can prevent one of its own citizens from going overseas to pick up
international leadership awards, without any rational explanation,
then how can the members of the IOC in all good conscience continue to
prepare for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. What China did to Mrs.
Yuan is an outrage, or should be. It’s time for an immediate
international Olympics boycott.

After this recent incident, the IOC really owes the world an
explanation for how it can continue to play into China’s hands.