Boycott the Beijing Olympics

Dear editor:

I wish to commend you on your fine editorial commment "Olympic pressure mounting for Beijing" August 15, 2007.

I believe Canada should boycott the Beijing Olympics.

China is a brutal Communist totalitarian tyranny and Chinese businessmen are part of that tyranny.

Freedom House rates all the world's countries on a scale from "1" (best) to "7" (worst) in both political and civil rights in its annual survey of freedom. The 2007 survey gives Canada a rating of "1" in both categories. China is "7" in political rights (no better than when Mao Zedong ruled the country) and "6" in civil rights (only slightly better than under Mao). Tibet and Hong Kong are rated separately. Tibet is rated "7" in both categories (no better than under Mao). Hong Kong is somewhat better being rated "5" in political rights and "2" in civil rights. However, China could snuff out Hong Kong's freedoms at a moment's notice. Taiwan, the only part of China the Communists never conquered and to all extents a separate country, is rated "2" in political rights and "1" in civil rights. China still claims Taiwan as part of China and has stated it is justified in invading Taiwan to rejoin it to China.

Elections are a sham; the results have been decided in advance by the Communist Party. Not only can the Chinese not change their government in free elections, they cannot lobby for a change in the system without risking prison. They cannot even change the system from within. You cannot join the Communist Party unless you show you will be loyal to its selfserving machine. The only way to advance up through the ranks is with the approval of those above you and they will not allow anyone to advance who is not one of their kind.

Amnesty International reports that China's human rights situation has deteriorated since 2003 when Hu Jintao consolidated his hold on power. As both President of China and Communist Party Secretary he is as absolute a dictator as was Mao. Human Rights Watch backs up A.I.'s claim. Its 2007 report demonstrates that human rights worsened in China during 2006. It has called upon Canada to take a more proactive role in promoting human rights in China. According to H.R.W. Chinese border guards gun down unarmed Tibetans trying to flee the country. Transparency International ranks the world's countries according to how open and corruption-free they are. Canada is in 14th place in its corruption perceptions index; Taiwan is 34th.; China is 70th. Reporters without Borders ranks the world's countries according to how free their media is. Canada is in 16th place; Taiwan is 43rd.; China is 163rd. Only five other countries are worse than it. In China, the government owns all the media. It heavily censors the Internet and imprisons antigovernment bloggers.

China uses its influence in international organizations like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization to frustrate attempts to call it to account for its anti-democratic atrocities.

In "The Black Book of Communism", the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris demonstrated that Communism is, and always has been, a criminal enterprise by which Communists enrich themselves through plunder, murder, deceit and theft. This has been true since 1917 when Nikolai Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and established the Soviet Union. Communists have made every country they have ever ruled worse. Wherever they have gained control they have slaughtered people by the millions - 65,000,000 in China alone and still going on. Communists are neither ignorant nor misguided; they are evil.

Barry Kendall, Lefroy