[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 8, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4556-H4557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHINA AND THE 2008 OLYMPICS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. I thank the gentlelady.
I want Members to see an editorial that was in the Wall Street
Journal by Ronan Farrow and Mia Farrow entitled ``The Genocide
Olympics.''
It deals with the issue that there was a full page ad today in The
Washington Post with regard to the genocide that is taking place in
Sudan, and the one country that has the opportunity to really make a
difference to stop the genocide in Sudan is the country of China.
Mia Farrow says in this editorial, ``One World, One Dream is China's
slogan for the 2008 Olympics. But there is one nightmare that China
shouldn't be allowed to sweep under the rug. That nightmare is Darfur,
where more than 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2\1/2\
million driven from flaming villages by the Chinese-backed government
of Sudan.''
I have seen those villages and the burning of the villages and we
know that the genocide could be stopped by China.
Mia Farrow goes on to say, ``That so many corporate sponsors want the
world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough.
But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director
Steven Spielberg, who quietly visited China this month as he prepares
to help stage the Olympic ceremonies, to sanitize Beijing's image.''
Steven Spielberg, who produced Schindler's List, is now going to try to
turn the 2008 Olympics in China to look like a wonderful, wonderful
thing.
China is involved in Sudan where they have Antonov bombers bombing
the people, helicopters coming in and killing the people, and the
Janjaweed who come in and do all sorts of bad things--kill, rape and
maim. And China has used its veto power, Mia Farrow says, on the U.N.
Security Council to repeatedly obstruct efforts by the U.S. and the
U.K. to introduce peacekeepers to curtail the slaughter. Beijing, she
says, is uniquely positioned to put a stop to the slaughter, yet they
have so far been unabashed in their refusal to do so.
Now, there are some people saying that maybe--maybe--the 2008
Olympics ought to be boycotted. Now, how will you feel, watching or
going to the 2008 Olympics and knowing that the country that is doing
that could stop the genocide in Darfur?
And so I would urge that if China does not deal with the issue, then
the sponsors, but also the people from the West, certainly ought not
encourage China to say that we don't care, therefore, we're going to go
to your Olympics when Mia Farrow calls it ``the Genocide Olympics.''
And then she says some other very tough things about Spielberg. Does
he really want to be this? I mean, the Chinese are in essence doing
what the Nazis did in the Olympics in the thirties, cleaning the
streets and changing things.
China has the ability to stop the genocide that is taking place in
Sudan, and I think everyone should do everything they can. This
administration should do more and everyone in the Congress should do
more, that if China doesn't use its leverage in the U.N. and allow the
Security Council to pass a resolution allowing the end to come out with
regard to U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, then I believe that Mia Farrow
and those who are concerned and are considering boycotting the Olympics
will be right. This is a test for China.
Now, the Chinese Embassy is working this Hill aggressively. The
Chinese Embassy will be working the administration. The Chinese Embassy
will be working powerful governments around the world. But as long as
the genocide continues in Darfur where 400,000 people have died, 2.1
million are living in refugee camps, knowing that China has the ability
to stop what it mentions on
[[Page H4557]]
page A-18 in the Washington Post today in this editorial to stop this,
then if China is not prepared to use their leverage to stop the
genocide, then quite frankly I think Mia Farrow's title of calling this
``the Genocide Olympics'' will be true and no one should attend those
Olympics.
The ``Genocide Olympics''
(By Ronan Farrow and Mia Farrow)
``One World, One Dream'' is China's slogan for its 2008
Olympics. But there is one nightmare that China shouldn't be
allowed to sweep under the rug. That nightmare is Darfur,
where more than 400,000 people have been killed and more than
two-and-a-half million driven from flaming villages by the
Chinese-backed government of Sudan.
That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away
from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But
equally disappointing is the decision of artists like
director Steven Spielberg--who quietly visited China this
month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies--to
sanitize Beijing's image. Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994
founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of
survivors of the holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling
Darfur's genocide?
China is pouring billions of dollars into Sudan. Beijing
purchases an overwhelming majority of Sudan's annual oil
exports and state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.--an
official partner of the upcoming Olympic Games--owns the
largest shares in each of Sudan's two major oil consortia.
The Sudanese government uses as much as 80% of proceeds from
those sales to fund its brutal Janjaweed proxy militia and
purchase their instruments of destruction: bombers, assault
helicopters, armored vehicles and small arms, most of them of
Chinese manufacture. Airstrips constructed and operated by
the Chinese have been used to launch bombing campaigns on
villages. And China has used its veto power on the U.N.
Security Council to repeatedly obstruct efforts by the U.S.
and the U.K. to introduce peacekeepers to curtail the
slaughter.
As one of the few players whose support is indispensable to
Sudan, China has the power to, at the very least, insist that
Khartoum accept a robust international peacekeeping force to
protect defenseless civilians in Darfur. Beijing is uniquely
positioned to put a stop to the slaughter, yet they have so
far been unabashed in their refusal to do so.
But there is now one thing that China may hold more dear
than their unfettered access to Sudanese oil: their
successful staging of the 2008 Summer Olympics. that desire
may provide a lone point of leverage with a country that has
otherwise been impervious to all criticism.
Whether that opportunity goes unexploited lies in the hands
of the high-profile supporters of these Olympic Games.
Corporate sponsors like Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, General
Electric and McDonalds, and key collaborators like Mr.
Spielberg, should be put on notice. For there is another
slogan afoot, one that is fast becoming viral amongst
advocacy groups; rather than ``One World, One Dream,'' people
are beginning to speak of the coming ``Genocide Olympics.''
Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the
Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games? Do the various
television sponsors around the world want to share in that
shame? Because they will. Unless, of course, all of them add
their singularly well-positioned voices to the growing calls
for Chinese action to end the slaughter in Darfur.
Imagine if such calls were to succeed in pushing the
Chinese government to use its leverage over Sudan to protect
civilians in Darfur. The 2008 Beijing Olympics really could
become an occasion for pride and celebration, a truly
international honoring of the authentic spirit of ``one
world'' and ``one dream.''
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