TOM KNOTT: Medaling in world politics

China apparently is highly sensitive about Tibet, where protests in the spring led to state-induced death.

So the Chinese government has taken to blocking access to certain Internet sites deemed at odds with the glory and promise of the impending Beijing Games.

This goes against China’s promise to the IOC seven years ago to play nice with the rest of the world.

Not that anyone is surprised. Forget it, Jake. It’s China.

The higher-ups of the IOC are placated by their imitation Rolexes, fancy hotel suites and all the complimentary General Tso’s chicken they can eat. They should have held out for the Peking duck.

The world is expressing outrage over China’s censorship on the Internet, as if huffing and puffing ever resolved anything. Besides, being denied access to Tibet on the Internet is hardly as bad as brushing your teeth with China’s toxic toothpaste.

China goes by standards different from the Western world, as we know all too well.

It sends lots of junk to the U.S., whose citizens give the Communist government a free pass with their wallets, and toys with lead paint be darned.

At least we talk a good game when not obsessed with China’s goods.

We are about to be subjected to an onslaught of all things China, courtesy in part of NBC, which no doubt has uncovered any Chinese athlete who has overcome three recent deaths in the family, a potentially fatal disease and political oppression to compete in the Beijing Games.

The opening ceremonies commence Friday; 16 days of Olympic action ensue, all of it set to be captured by NBC’s cameras. It comes out to 3,600 hours of coverage, which means no pingpong return will go unnoticed.

Steven Spielberg was one of the artistic visionaries of the opening ceremonies until he decided China was part of the human-rights problem in Darfur, Sudan. His parting was perhaps aided by Darfur specialist Mia Farrow, stepmother of Soon-Yi, who ran off with her ex-squeeze, Woody Allen.

It is not going to go down well, these Beijing Games. The outrage is merely beginning.

One or two intrepid sorts with the Western media could attempt to resolve the mystery of the “Tank Man” of Tiananmen Square. The famous protester stood defiantly in front of a tank in 1989 and is presumed dead from a bullet to the head from the state that bills the family for the cost of the bullet.

China won the right to host the games with a wink and a nod. No telling what it awarded IOC voters on the sly. The games could end up being incidental to China’s Big Brother, especially if it blocks Internet access to Richard Gere, one of the Dalai Lama’s good buddies.

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