Tom Knott: Games can't alter the truth

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By Tom Knott

China's attempt to show its modern and orderly side at the Beijing Games next month is succumbing to the reality of a corrupt and unresponsive communist regime.

That China believed it could use the Olympics to showcase its advances was a farfetched notion from the outset, in the company of Hitler believing he could use the Berlin Games in 1936 to highlight the superiority of the Aryan race.

Several fast runners and swimmers do not reflect the character and strength of a people or confirm the righteousness of a government. A robust medal count is no more than that. The impressive medal count of the old Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries could not halt their decay from within.

With the globe's intrusive media set to descend on Beijing to tell the unfiltered stories of the masses and to ferret out the gross inequities of the communist system, China is destined to be cast in a light that disturbs government officials.

Free Tibet? That is only part of the uneasiness with China.

Taiwan and the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region are two other hot-button issues before the Chinese state.

Global calls to boycott the Beijing Games have subsided, thankfully enough. Boycotts end up only punishing the athletes who have labored countless years to have this one potential moment in the spotlight.

The U.S. boycotted the Moscow Games in 1980, and the Soviets boycotted the Los Angeles Games in 1984. No grand purpose was served in either case.

President Bush also has resisted the politically motivated suggestions to skip the opening ceremonies, as if showing up China's government would bring a level of clarity to it.

Poking a nation in the eye against the backdrop of athletic competition is a curious position, given the view of certain U.S. politicians to engage in dialogue with the nut job of Iran.