The Middle Kingdom’s Potential Olympic Ailments

By Spencer Hall
Tibetans have been rioting for around a week now depending on whose reports you believe, and they’ve either been settled peacefully or hundreds have been killed -- again, depending on whose reports you believe.
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Without bringing too many ugly real-life politics into The Sporting Blog, we’d like to familiarize you with the hot-button issues China’s terrified of having even mentioned during their triumphant Olympics. Tibet’s just one of several sensitive issues for the Chinese, so catch up with our list of handy-dandy potential security embarrassments that could bubble up before or even during the Olympics.
1. Taiwan. The island non-nation nation that everything used to come from before 1980 and the opening up of mainland China. Taiwan may or may not be a part of China, and as you can imagine, people get very upset when they try to figure out whether it is or not. Taiwan has had a totally separate government since 1949, and is unlike China a cantankerous and lively democracy.
Their elections are in May, and if the Democratic People’s Party mentions independence, the PRC typically likes to scare the daylights out of Taiwan by pointing missiles at them and, occasionally, “testing” a few by firing them over Taipei in 1996. See? That place where all your toys were made is fun!
2. Tibet. Similar to Taiwan, except that Tibet didn’t have water separating it from China, meaning the Chinese walked right in and occupied the place in the fifties. A celebrity cause in the United States, and the reason your yoga instructor has that “Free Tibet” bumper sticker. Has already caused embarrassing trouble for China this year; further unrest during the Olympics would be a PR disaster, and here’s the fun part: Tibetans likely know this all too well.
3. The Falungong. A religious sect banned by the Chinese government, they’re fond of showing up in prominent places and getting arrested on camera.
4.Tiananmen/Human Rights Protesters. China’s long been a target of human rights protesters: Chinese citizens can be detained for just about anything including “hooliganism” and “selling pornography” -- both punishable by the death penalty under Chinese law -- and critics of the government often find free but uncomfortable accommodations in the large Chinese prison system.
The Chinese government has never acknowledged the government’s role in the massacre of students in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and occasionally protesters like to pop in with large banners and make a ruckus before being arrested by security forces.
So in summary, just know this: the Chinese government will have more policemen on hand than you have skin cells for the Olympics, but event that won’t prevent someone from using the occasion to make a highly visible protest. And more than anything, the Chinese fear being embarrassed.
Following the international media’s reaction to any incident will be fascinating, especially NBC’s: would they deliberately avoid covering any protests or incidents? And if so, would they be anything better than propagandists for doing so?↵