Broken promises

The Olympics will open in Beijing in less than a week, yet there are no signs that the Chinese government will honour its promise to improve human rights and enhance democracy. In 2001, when Beijing made the bid to host the Games, it gave such an undertaking. Now that the event is about to begin, the pledge appears to have gone with the wind.

According to a report by Amnesty International, to mark the 10-day countdown to the Olympics, the Chinese authorities have locked up, put under house arrest and forcibly removed individuals they believe may threaten the image of 'stability' and 'harmony' they want to present to the world.

'By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the Games seven years ago,' said Amnesty's Asia-Pacific deputy director Roseann Rife. The Chinese government denies Amnesty's claims, insisting that human rights in China have improved a lot in the past few decades. Beijing also urged Amnesty and others not to interfere in China's internal affairs, a pretext often used to deflect accusations of human rights violations.

Members of The Frontier delivered an open letter, addressed to President Hu Jintao , to the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong yesterday to remind Beijing to keep its promise by releasing all political dissidents and human rights lawyers before the start of the Games.

One of the cases we highlighted is that of housing activist Ye Guozhu . Ye has served a four-year sentence for 'picking quarrels and stirring up trouble' because of his opposition to the seizure and demolition of property to make way for Olympic construction projects. Although he had served his time by July 26, the Chinese government decided to keep him in jail until at least October 1, after the end of the Games. Such lawless behaviour has shocked the international community and inflicted untold damage on Beijing's reputation. It also shows that the Olympics has made the human rights situation worse in China.

Beijing's promise of 'complete media freedom' for the Games is a farce. The Amnesty report said journalists are barred from covering sensitive stories and prevented from conducting interviews. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China noted 260 cases of reporting interference since the start of 2007. Last month, Hong Kong journalists covering the chaos surrounding the sale of Olympic tickets were manhandled by public security guards. Some reporters were pushed to the ground, and their cameras were smashed.

Since the Olympic Village press centre opened on July 25, reporters have been unable to access scores of webpages, including those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the websites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers.

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that Beijing places on the internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, that Beijing had agreed to provide full Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr Rogge had long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that it would make China more open.

This, apparently, is not so. Authorities will continue to censor websites deemed harmful to national security and social stability, and there's precious little the IOC can and will do to stop it.

World leaders attending the Games should speak publicly for human rights in China and in support of individual Chinese human rights activists. Failure to do so would send the message that it is acceptable for a government to host the Olympics in an atmosphere of repression and persecution.

In Hong Kong, a Chinese city that still enjoys certain freedoms, we must stand in the front line of defence of civil liberties and the rule of law.

Emily Lau Wai-hing is a legislative councillor for The Frontier