The US should boycott the Olympics? The US, that outspends the combined spending of the rest of the world on armaments?? The US that has military bases in over 100 countries??? The US that is responsible for more arms proliferation than the Chinese military-industrial complex ever dreamed of??? The US that is responsible for much of the increase in Chinese military spending because it routinely holds military exercises off the Chinese coast and violates Chinese airspace in hopes of ginning up a conflict to justify even higher weapons spending than we already have already??? The US that is responsible for the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis in the last 5 years alone???

I hope I'm not being abusive here. But you have some gaul, buddy. We're lucky they're letting us in!

It would look too much like hypocracy - pointing out the speck in another's eye while ignoring the beam in ours,etc. If you can get enough people together to make a difference, it would be best to turn their attention to our own government.

We do have leverage with the Chinese government. Just because a government isn't democratic doesn't mean there aren't competing constituencies within it. The US, with its oversized, aggressive military-industrial complex, empowers the Chinese military-industrial complex at budget time. If we could reign in our military and stop them from trying to dominate the oil-producing areas of the world, the Chinese would be less likely to get involved places like Darfur. If the US could make a significant reduction in its oil consumption (say 50%) those in China who want to do something similar would be more likely to listened to.

Boycotting the Olympics would be seen as extremely disrespectful of Chinese civilization.

very odd article, it doesn't mention China at all ~ tina

Russia wants UN sanctions for Darfur rebels
11 Mar 2008 22:28:11 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Reuters) - Russia's U.N. ambassador on Tuesday backed Sudan's calls for U.N. sanctions against rebel groups in its war-wracked West Darfur region which Khartoum blames for the continued violence there.

After the Security Council heard a bleak U.N. report on Darfur, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was time to punish rebel groups with sanctions for not complying with a ceasefire agreement.

But U.S. and British envoys said that any new round of sanctions should target both Sudan's government and the rebels, since both were responsible for the violence.

"The Russian delegation was the only delegation that raised the need of finally contemplating sanctions against the rebel groups who are challenging the peace process and who are refusing to abide by the ceasefire," Churkin said.

This is something that Khartoum has demanded.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced to flee homes in Darfur since conflict erupted in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government. The government of Sudan has mobilized mainly Arab militias to quell the revolt.

U.N. deputy peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet addressed the Security Council about Darfur. While he had little new information, he painted what several envoys described as a bleak and depressing picture of the situation in Darfur.

"The continued hostilities in Darfur serve as a stark reminder that urgent international engagement and concrete action is necessary to encourage and pressure the parties to the conflict to lay down their weapons and commit to the path of dialogue," Mulet said.

He also repeated that African Union-U.N. peacekeepers urgently needed helicopters in Darfur. So far, only Ethiopia has pledged four acceptable choppers, Mulet said.

'REALLY DEPRESSING'

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the rebels and government shared responsibility for violence against civilians in Darfur, so any new sanctions would have to target both.

British Ambassador John Sawers said Mulet's briefing was "really depressing." He agreed that the rebels and Khartoum shared the blame for the lack of progress toward peace.

"All parties have got responsibilities for the lack of progress on the ground, so if there's going to be a further round of sanctions it would have to be a balanced package," Sawers said.

more

U.S. report links China arms sales to Darfur carnage
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
Reuters
Thursday, March 13, 2008

WASHINGTON: Chinese sales of assault rifles and other small arms to its ally Sudan have grown rapidly during the Darfur conflict despite a U.N. arms embargo, a human rights group said on Thursday.

Human Rights First, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, said a detailed study of Sudanese and U.N. trade data showed that China was virtually the sole supplier of small arms to Sudan, which pays for the weapons with its growing oil revenues.

"The people of Sudan's Darfur region will endure more death, disease and dislocation, and this will be due in no small part to China's callousness," said the report, which called on Beijing to stop all arms sales to Sudan and urged the world to link that campaign to the Beijing Olympics.

...

China sold Sudan $55 million worth of small arms from 2003-2006 and provided 90 percent of Sudan's small arms since 2004 when a U.N. arms embargo took effect, the report said.

Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers and ammunition for rifles and heavy machine guns have all flowed into Darfur, said the report.

...

China's embassy in Washington said in a statement that China, "in line with relevant U.N. resolutions and China's own policies regarding arms sales, requires normal defensive usage by the buyer country."

Sudan's refusal to obey U.N. Security Council resolutions banning arms transfers to Darfur undercut China's assertions it could not affect Sudan's behaviour there, the group said.

"China can exercise absolute control over its own actions and can stop shipping arms to the Sudanese government which has publicly stated that it will ignore the U.N. arms embargo," said Betsy Apple, representing the group.

But Human Rights First was not advocating a boycott of the Beijing Olympics as some Darfur activists have called for.

"We believe that China is particularly vulnerable in the lead up to the Olympics, Apple told reporters. "We want to see China's concrete action that matches its rhetoric."