Keeping the Flame Alive

Felice Gaer, chairperson of the USCIRF, testified April 25, 2007, before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing: “It is up to the U.S. and its allies to vigorously advocate that China finally end the systematic and egregious human rights violations it may try to hide behind a façade of Olympic goodwill.”

Except for the din of protestors disrupting the run of the Olympic torch carriers, Ms. Gaer’s call is not being answered.

In a successful effort to dodge demonstrators, those bearing the torch during its only North American appearance were directed—at literally the last minute—to run on a different route than originally announced. In fact, the last few miles of its journey in San Francisco were abroad a bus bound for the city’s airport.

The flame relay was expected to cover 85,000 miles over five continents. It appears now there will be less mileage on the torch when it arrives in Beijing than once thought.

Furor over the Olympic torch run reached a feverish peak in London and Paris, where some of those bearing the torch were roughed up as protestors swarmed to disrupt the flame’s procession.

While some progress has been made, there are longstanding reasons to criticize the Chinese government. The nation’s leaders have an extensive record of failing to respect their citizens’ rights to free speech, religious exercise, and an unfettered press, among other shortcomings. Chinese citizens live under a regime that restricts what can be seen on television broadcasts and viewed on the Internet.

Since the 1950s, the People’s Republic of China has occupied the once-free nation of Tibet. Political and religious prisoners toil away in China’s prisons. The country economically supports the murderous thugs that govern Sudan and terrorize those in Darfur. It has in the past blessed Iran’s thinly disguised nuclear weapons program.

In support of its one-child policy (which culturally favors male offspring), the government turns a blind eye to those who offer inexpensive ultrasounds to pregnant Chinese women in order to facilitate the process of sex-selection abortions. In fear of exorbitant fines for violating the government’s population control measures or under duress, many Chinese women have been sterilized.

“There is a whole nation of women who are not living in China today because they were aborted before they were born,” comments Reggie Littlejohn, an American attorney who advises an international human rights group on China, according to a news report.

These fashionable protests against the torch ring hollow to me. To violently attack those who have been selected to bear the flame is a misdirected protest. Your angst is directed at the wrong person. Where has your voice been for the past fifty years while freedoms have been severely repressed in Tibet?

Have you shed tears for those who toil at hard labor in China’s prisons because they dared to speak out against injustice or because they wanted to share their faith? Do you mourn the hundreds of thousands of children who have been caught up in the country’s practice of infanticide?

I am far less interested in bruising the spirits of those honored to carry the Olympic torch and dampening the flame itself than I am with the Chinese government’s historic and ongoing effort to extinguish the flames of freedom lit by brave Chinese men and women.

As free men and women truly concerned about the plight of the Chinese, we must do much more than chant slogans and harass those in the torch relay. My fear is that once the flame is extinguished on these Olympics, the people of China will be forgotten again.

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