www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXx_VjLHlQM


By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Beijing, the Olympic motto of Citius, Altius Fortius - faster, higher, stronger - might have been intended as an inspiration for athletes but for this year’s Chinese hosts, it has also become a rallying call to suppress dissent in Tibet.
The Tibetan capital’s most senior Communist party official cited the 84-year-old motto to urge people to crack down on supporters of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, at an Olympic torch relay ceremony in Lhasa last week.
“Encouraged by the Olympic spirit of faster, higher, stronger, Lhasa people of all nationalities will . . . resolutely smash the Dalai clique’s scheme to destabilise Tibet, sabotage the Olympics and split the motherland,” said Qin Yizhi, Lhasa party secretary.
However, this use of the Olympic spirit to support Chinese rule in Tibet may prove to be a tactical mistake for Mr Qin and his comrades.
In the lead-up to the Games, when activists have tried to link the event with issues such as Tibet, human rights abuses and violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, China has insisted politics should be kept separate from the Olympics.
Yet this week, it was Beijing that was censured by the International Olympic Committee, whose charter bans any “political, religious or racial propaganda” from all Games areas.
“We have written to Bocog [the Beijing Games organising committee] to remind them of the need to separate sport and -politics and to ask for their support in making sure such situations do not arise again,” said the IOC.
Beijing remains unapologetic, however. Responding to the IOC letter, a foreign ministry spokesman said: “For the officials concerned to express their views on some issues is not a politicisation of the Olympics,” he said.
“It is a further effort to restore stability in the Tibet region and to create a benign and stable environment for hosting the Olympic Games.”
However, Beijing is unlikely to mollify critics with its insistence that it is political to criticise its policies on Tibet but not political to defend them.
The Beijing Olympics will hardly be the first to be marred by disputes over politicisation, of course. The huge budget and massive publicity power of the Olympics mean it can never be a simple sporting event.
And separating politics would be particularly difficult in China, where the head of Bocog is also Beijing’s party secretary.
www.ft.com/china