The Olympic Games: A Propaganda Victory for China? 陈凯访谈

The Olympic Games: A Propaganda Victory for China? 陈凯访谈

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The Olympic Games: A Propaganda Victory for China?

By FrontPage Magazine

FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, August 22, 2008

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Kai Chen, a victim of China's Cultural Revolution who fled his home at the age of 15. He found salvation in basketball and rose to became a member of the Chinese National Team. He used this athletic skill to escape China and to eventually settle in the U.S. He is the founder of the Olympic Freedom T-shirt Movement and author of One In A Billion: Journey Toward Freedom.

FP: Kai Chen, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Chen: Thank you.

FP: The current Olympic Games are being portrayed as a propaganda victory for China. Do you think that the Chinese government has succeeded in concealing the real nature of Chinese society from the international media? Has the international media attempted to look behind the new bamboo curtain?

Chen: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is, and has always been, a corrupt organization. There has never been any control mechanism within that organization. It has paid only lip service on the human rights issues in China, and entirely ignored the illegitimate nature of the Chinese communist regime. In a big way, the IOC helps conceal the nature of the Chinese society - a post communist, but neo-Nazi society, and deceive the world as the Chinese communist regime intended to. I have to say that the IOC is a big sham in a big scheme to legitimize an illegitimate government. In some way the criminal communist regime has already succeeded in their deception from the start: President Bush was there, wasn't he?

With countless violations and tragedies caused by the Beijing Olympics Preparation Organization under the Chinese government, have you ever heard IOC squeeze a f--- toward the Chinese government. NBC which covers the Beijing Olympics, often using Tiananmen Square as the back drop, fails to mention Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. A deal somehow has been struck between IOC and NBC, wouldn't you say so?

But the real nature of the Chinese society as a real issue will never go away. The criminal government with its countless atrocities against humanity in the past and present has caused more than 70 million innocent lives in peace time. That issue will never go away, unless God is blind. The current anti-humanity activities by the Chinese criminal regime is still continuing. Falungong, Tibet, Christians, dissidents, one-child policy, corruption, supporting all the criminal regimes and groups around the world from Darfur to Burma to North Korea to Latin America with weapons and money. The world has to wake up to the Chinese threat, a threat to our own conscience, an invasion of our souls.

FP: One of the submotifs of the Games is China's apparent willingness to cheat to win. They hardly fielded a women's swimming team because their swimmers, once dominant, were decimated by doping violations. And now there are allegations that they have altered the ages of their gymnasts in violation of international rules. What does this say about Chinese society?

Chen: Nothing surprises me or shocks me in China. When I represented China in many international situations, my passport was civilian, even though I was an army man. Though in the 1970, illegal doping was unknown in China, because the regime was ignorant about it, by the beginning of 1990s, with the import of many East German coaches, doping was instituted as a government program to many athletes, especially women athletes. But just like in East Germany, (all the doping scandals only came out with evidence after the collapse of the Berlin Wall) the Chinese doping scandals will be exposed only after the future collapse of the communist regime with its archives eventually opened to the public.

The moral issue facing the individual Chinese athletes is: Does anyone eventually come forward to confess to the world of their drug use (forced or voluntary) under the supervision of the communist regime. Do they really want to return their gold medals? Does the under aged gold medalist have the freedom and courage to defy the entire Chinese society, their own families, their own community to admit these violations? If not, what is the moral consequences they will have to bear in their entire lives?

FP: One of the stories of the Chinese Games--even though it has not been deeply probed by the media--is the environmental devastation of the Chinese environment. How deep a problem is it? Is it possible for any environmental movement (outside a governmentally sanctioned one) to take on these problems in the way that western environmentalists have in their societies?

Chen: By Western standards, China should be officially defined as uninhabitable. The pollution issue is so big that no one in China, in the Chinese government, and possibly in the world, wants to face it, for the bigger, more pressing issue to the regime is how to deceive the entire population, how to prolong their control over the Chinese people by spiritually drugging them, how to stabilize a fundamentally unjust society (an impossible task). Food must be on the table, unemployment must be kept to the manageable level, dissidents must be crushed, the increasingly restless population must be pacified. Pollution and environment damage? What pollution and environmental damage?

Quite a few teammates of mine have already died of cancer in their 40s and 50s. Are they going to find out what caused their cancer? Do they have the means to find out? Quite unlikely.

FP: Some analysts have said that the "openness" shown by the Chinese government in terms of media coverage of the earthquake, combined with the international media's presence at the Olympics, will have a modest but permanent liberalizing effect on Chinese society. Is this so?

Chen: If there has been an "openness," it is not because the Chinese government wants to open, but because they have to change their policies in order to maintain their control over the population. On the one hand, they will have to continue to attract foreign investment to keep the economy humming. On the other hand, they also will have continue to build the information "firewall" - a new kind Chinese Great Wall, to keep all threatening elements, such as Christianity, Falungong, ideas of freedom and democracy out of the reach of the Chinese people. They now have employed 200,000 internet police to monitor the society. They also hired countless "50 cent" propaganda amateurs to help "lead" the public opinions toward government side, by demonizing the West, America, Christianity, Falungong, and people like me. My email contacts were recently attacked with viruses systematically from an unknown source.

"Open" or "closed" is only a tactic in the hands of an illegitimate government, insecure about its own future for the crimes it has committed against the entire population over the past 60 years.

FP: As you look behind the imagery of the Olympics--undoubtedly glamorous, but also airbrushed and sanitized, according to critics of the coverage--what kind of society do you see?

Chen: China is a fascist and neo-Nazi society. No one nowadays, including members of the communist party, believes in the ideology of communism - an ideology discredited world wide with the collapse of the USSR. But the Party-State structure left by the previous founders such as Mao is still very much intact. To make Mao's image everywhere in China, on the currency, in school campuses, on Tiananmen Square is a crucial government policy to numb the Chinese people's senses. To dismantle Mao's image, the National Anthem what espouses despotism, the National Flag that symbolizes individuals' submission to the collective, and the entire communistic organizational structure is not a task the communist party will ever possibly engage itself in. It depends on the organizational structure to survive another few years.

Evil's triumph is because not enough good people stand up. And no evil will disappear by itself.

FP: Kai Chen, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Chen: Thank you.

中国奖牌得主-失落的个体孤魂 Chinese Medalists - Lost Individuals

中国奖牌得主-失落的个体孤魂 Chinese Medalists - Lost Individuals

每日一语：

在中国奖牌得主中，没有一个人在得奖后向观众席上观望，寻找自己的亲友去分享自己的成功。 从他们表演给他人的微笑中，我只看到了失落的个体孤魂，我只看到了屈辱和痛苦。 他们在心理上和良知上会为此承受严重的后果。 --- 陈凯

If you pay attention to the Chinese medallists in the Beijing Olympics, as always, you will find that none of them look toward the audience to find their family and friends to share their success. They only respond to the coaches and leaders. From the fake smiles designed to perform for others, and to cover their own pain/misery, I only see some lonely hearts lost in the crowds who care nothing about these athletes but want to steal something from them. I only see humiliation and excruciating pain. They will have to bear grave consequences of selling themselves to an entity that entirely dehumanizes them as individual beings.

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Dear Visitors:

Have you seen any smile from the Chinese athletes in Beijing that is from the bottom of their hearts? Can't you see that all the smiles are only put on their face to show others?

All the Chinese athletes will eventually have to face themselves and ask themselves: "Is this worth it to sell one's freedom and dignity for something that oppresses their own very individuality?"

Many Chinese athletes are picked from very young age and separated from their families ever since. Their own families are also willing to leave them to the cruelty and inhumanity of the athletic environment under Chinese despotic culture/government. No one knows their pain, inner torment and suffering. They are pressured from outside, not driven from inside, to succeed. And when they achieve, their achievement is stolen by the country, by their leaders, by the crowds that know and care nothing about them. The people around them only care about using them and their achievement to add some ingredients into their designer narcotics, so they will have a grand illusion to escape the true state of their own mind, the true meaning in their own lives. Who do they want to share their old medals if they are robbed from their youth of their own loved ones, of their own very individual identity, of something that is most precious as a human being?? The fake entities of course - the party, the collective, the country, the team, the leaders, the Chinese people.....

Contrast to the Chinese athletes, American athletes will first look into the audience to find their loved ones to share their success. That is what things are supposed to be and should be, for freedom and joy from inside of each athlete is the ultimate reward to himself/herself.

Have you wondered why the Chinese got more gold medals than Americans while in overall medal counts they are trailing?

In China, the system has no just and fair selective process to decide who is going to make the roster for the Olympics. In America, the process is just, open and fair: You have to qualify in an objective standard/system in the Olympic Qualifying Events. As long as you are qualified via fair competition, no one has any power to reject you from the roster. In China, the selective process to decide who is on the roster is purely political/arbitrary. The leaders first consider your chance to get the gold medal (besides your loyalty to them/collective/country), for only the gold medal can ensure the Party-state's National Anthem be played for the audience. Only the gold medal has the maximum effect to drug the Chinese population and induce maximum illusions. If you are considered just another athlete with minimum chance to win the gold, you are pushed behind and diminished as a less-valued asset, for your value as a narcotic ingredient to drug the population is negligible.

This collective-first mindset has caused countless misery and tragedies among the Chinese athletes. Yet in China no one knows the athletes' pain and suffering. No one cares. They are just some tools with talents to be used and abandoned. Everyone, not just the Chinese authority, in China views athletes like that, views all the people themselves like that. So strictly speaking, the Chinese are the victims of their own despotic and inhuman mentality. Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony is the epitome of such a collective/despotic mentality.

I, as an athlete having survived that inhuman system, now only want to tell you the truth - the truth no one wants to hear. Yet, here I am. I exist. I am not afraid. I will speak.

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯

陳凱：京奧開幕是36年柏林奧運的重演 Replay of 1936

陳凱：京奧開幕是36年柏林奧運的重演

【大紀元8月14日訊】（大紀元記者袁玫柔似密市報導）

前中國籃球隊隊員陳凱9日表示，北京奧運開幕式是1936年柏林納粹奧運的重演──一個沒有人的人群，一個沒有個體的社會，一個沒有意義的組合，一個沒有內容的表象，一個沒有自由的存在，一群沒有獨立尊嚴的機器，一些「不以為恥反以為榮」的宦奴娼等等 ，這就是今天的中國。

陳凱9日晚間應台美工作室邀請，論京奧、並播放新唐人為他製作的「我的路」談他為中國人民的自由民主所做努力的心路歷程。談及京奧開幕式時說，這是一場新納粹的表演-沒有人性的人 之儀式（Opening Ceremony - People without Humans ），沒有人的自然活力，只是穿了服裝任人宰割的人，其中心主題就是：「小心！不要阻止中國的崛起 - 我們將要主導世界」。

如此只對其專制政權負責的開幕式，花費巨資、踐踏人權，不僅使參加的人們像一群螞蟻為蟻王工作，更製造了精神鴉片，在文化上對世界進行精神侵略，「來，大家看看，以奧運精神來執行專制是可行的」，精神上的腐蝕，如以布什總統的參加來認可中共政權。陳凱希望大家看清楚，尤其是西方人，不要被其大場面的高科技所嚇倒，不要被表現所迷惑，無論是用金子或竹子做的籠子完全是相同的，因中共本質未變，而瘦豬或胖豬都改不了被宰割之命運。

這種「白面」作用下，能讓人產生了精神上的幻覺，用巨資建立」中國人偉大」的幻覺，卻忘掉了過去的絕望、困苦、迫害，從而容忍了邪惡、容忍了邪惡政權的存在。陳凱表示，中國人應真正認清追求自由幸福的權力，拒絕毒品，脫離其黨，脫離被奴役的狀態。

陳凱表示，奧運會本來是好事，每個人可以展現才能，可以在不同領域中競技，對運動員而言，這是對人類極限的挑戰及衝擊。但中共奧運腐蝕了每個人的良知，中共以奧運來證實其「合法性」。但無論怎樣未經選舉出的政權都是不合法的，虛幻代替不了現實。

很多人有「好死不如賴活」的想法，如果接受這個腐敗的想法則不易走向自由，沒自由也就沒有尊嚴可言。事實上，即使在專制下，只要斷然拒絕中共「跟著政府才能生存」的洗腦，只要認清自己的道德良知，就仍能嚮往自由。通過奧運陳凱要告訴大家，他為追求自由付出了代價、付出了努力，但是他獲得了自由。希望人們也以他為鑒。

430 亿美元-精神毒品的昂贵 Spiritual Narcotics are Very Expensive

430 亿美元-精神毒品的昂贵 Spiritual Narcotics are Very Expensive

每日一语：

物质毒品是昂贵的。 精神毒品就更为昂贵。 这两种毒品都不能营养人的身体与灵魂，但却能使人在走向死亡中有达到高潮的幻觉。 北京奥运就是这样一种昂贵的（430亿美元）精神毒品。 中国的人们正在幻觉的路上走向精神的死亡。 --- 陈凯

只有真理才能使你自由。 --- 耶稣基督

Physical narcotics are expensive. Spiritual narcotics are even more expensive. Both cannot nourish a person's physical and spiritual existence, but both are designed to induce orgasmic illusions. Beijing Olympics is such an expensive spiritual narcotic product - $43 Billion. And the Chinese are on their illusory and glorious way to hell. --- Kai Chen

Only truth shall set you free. --- Jesus Christ

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Dear Visitors:

I can't imagine a free/democratic society would allow its government to spend 43 billion dollars to host Olympics. People in a free society have more important pursuits for themselves and their children, and they would tell their own government to go to hell if the government wants to spend their tax dollars for some illusory glory in the Olympics.

But Beijing Olympics breaks all the spending records in Olympic history - 43 billion dollars and counting. A despotic government will never consider the interests of the people in that society when it spends the money it robs from its people. Controlling the population by drugging and paralyzing them in order to stabilize the criminal regime is the ultimate objective. So what the Chinese people get is a highly potent spiritual narcotic that induces a temporary high while reducing a person into a spiritual cripple. Now the Chinese are highly illusory and delusional. The society is speeding toward hell. This is not a surprise at all, for all despotic societies are doomed to walk the same path anyway.

What do you expect when a narcotic addict wakes up with a reality check? A paranoid schizophrenic state, what else? Danger looms after the Olympics. People will need more potent narcotics (more expensive as well like what would cost in a war) just to keep going. What do you expect to happen then?

No unjust societies are stable. This is the truth that many don't want to see, including many Westerners. I see troubles and potential collapse loom in China's future. Look out!

Best. Kai Chen

形压质，群压个，利压乐-典型中式奥运 A Typical Show of Chinese Despotism

形压质，群压个，利压乐-典型中式奥运 A Typical Show of Chinese Despotism

每日一语：

要形象而不要真实；要群体而不要个体；要地位而不要欢乐、、。 从女童假唱到没有欢乐，充满欺骗的女子体操，假、伪、虚、痛、无望充斥了中国的体坛。 你看到了一丝发自内心的笑容了吗？ 那些装出的、皮笑肉不笑的表演只令人作呕。 --- 陈凯

Images over truth, the collective over the individuals, social status/power over joy and happiness.... From the Chinese girl's lip synching to the blunder of Chinese women's water polo to the joyless performance of the Chinese women's gymnasts..., everything the Chinese do is full of deception, pretentiousness, nihilism with a silent inner pain/torment. Have you ever seen a smile from the heart of anyone? The joyless performance to achieve gold medals, to me, is only a shameful, nauseating manifestation of slavery under despotism. --- Kai Chen

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Dear Visitors:

The Chinese girl's lip synching to perfect the Chinese image around the world is only a small confession to the world what the Chinese society is all about -- a society without substance/truth, only symbolism with fake images. How other people see China has always been an obsession/preoccupation for the Chinese themselves.

When I watched the Chinese women's water polo team playing against the US, I could foresee the result when the Chinese had the last chance with 8 seconds left to even the score. The Chinese women simply passed the ball around and wasted the precious opportunity. They didn't even get the shot off. I could see what was in their mind: avoiding taking any individual initiative and responsibility. As long as we all fail together, failure is only a success - no single individual will take the blame, or glory and everyone will be satisfied living with the consequences regardless. What a state of silent desperation!

When you watch the Chinese women's gymnasts taking the gold, don't you feel shame? First they fake the age of the girls, against the Olympic rule that under-aged girls should not compete in gymnastics. Then have you sensed the inner pain, suffering and tremendous torment of those under-aged girls? When they smile, it is not because of joy, but because they have to put up the smile, by the officials' orders, to deceive the world, against their own unbearable pain and suffering inside. I truly feel for those girls seeing their tears of pain swallowed when they put on the gold medals. There is a big price to pay in their lives that they are yet to be aware of. I fear for their future.

I hope you all can see what I see. But I know not all of you can see through the surface to detect what is behind. You need not only your fleshy eye balls, you need your own conscience and intellectual honesty to see that is truly going on.

I bet there are many things you did not expect that will happen during the Beijing Olympics. To me they will never be surprises.

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯

专制集权的象征 Designs on Power (by Steven Heller, LA Times)

专制集权的象征 Designs on Power (by Steven Heller, LA Times)

每日一语：

当中国的人们在心理上与物理上击碎了当代世界历史上最大的屠夫罪犯-毛泽东的形象的时候，他们才会开始从专制暴政的阴影中逐渐自由出来，回复正常的人的心态。 --- 陈凯

When the Chinese truly abandon/crush the images of Mao - the biggest mass murderer in human history - psychologically and physically, they can begin to free themselves from despotism and tyranny, they can begin to return to humanity. --- Kai Chen

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Dear Visitors:

I now paste a very good article from LA Times below for you to read.

Beijing Olympics indeed provides the opportunity for the world to see China as what it truly is: a totalitarian party-state bent to destroy any remnant humanity of any individual in Chinese society. The criminal party-state's biggest weapon in achieving that end is the portrait of their icon - the murderous Mao. They print it on Chinese currency. They erect it on all the public places. They hung it on Tiananmen Gate overlooking everyone....

Smashing Mao's image, both physically and mentally/psychologically, is the prerequisite for the Chinese to free themselves from despotism and tyranny. I hope that one day will come soon when Mao's image is no longer feared/worshipped/revered, but reviled and despised. I am working now with all of you toward achieving that end.

Enjoy the article below now.

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯

Designs on Power

By Steven Heller (LA Times) Sunday August 10, 2008

What a scandal it would be to see Adolf Hitler's portrait hanging in Berlin today or tomorrow. Of course, it could never happen because German law prohibits the public display or celebratory portraits of Der Fuehrer, as well as Nazi signs and symbols like the swastika.

In Russia, hanging portraits of Josef Stalin in public is discouraged (although not unlawful), and since the fall of the Soviet Union, monuments to the brutal dictator have mostly been torn down. In Italy, Benito Mussolini's lock-jawed visage has long been removed from national view, although in his hometown of Predappio a shrine containing his tomb and a souvenir shop replete with Il Duce T-shirts, postcards and bottles of wine annually attracts a fair number of curious tourists.

In China, however, where the Olympic Games opened last week, there are no legal, ethical or moral restrictions against revering Mao Tse-tung, the Great Helmsman, despite the tragic outcome of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which wreaked havoc on China during the second half of the 20th century and led to the deaths of tens of millions of its people.

Not only is Mao's official depiction, with his Mona Lisa smile, by the painter Zhang Zhenshi still looming over Tiananmen Square, where it has hung since the 1950s, but his face remains on much Chinese currency (although not on the new 10-yuan note created for the Olympics) and on many postage stamps. Although the Olympic logo and graphics are as removed from turgid Chinese socialist realism as can be (and Mao is not to be found anywhere on sanctioned Olympic souvenirs), busts, porcelain figures (Cultural Revolutionary Hummel-ware) produced by Red Guard cadres, posters and other Mao-era souvenirs are plentiful as many flea markets in and around Beijing.

What's more, reproductions of Mao badges and Little Red Books, which were produced in the millions during the Cultural Revolution, as well as Mao clocks, watches and cigarette lighters are available through street vendors and more high-tech websites devoted to such kitsch.

When Germany was defeated in 1945, the Allies declared Nazi graphics to be contraband. But in China, the Communists remained in charge, and the logo, flag, and heroic icons remained in place after Mao's death. Despite attempts to desecrate the famous Tiananmen placard - in 1989, three men were jailed for throwing black paint during pro-democracy protests, and in 2007, another man attempted to set ablaze - Mao's status as a graphic icon has outlasted the leading early-and mid-20th century dictators, continuing into the 21st century if only as a branding alternative to the Chinese panda.

(Steven Heller, co-chairman of the MFA design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York, writes the "Visual" column for the New York Times Book Review. His most recent book is "Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State".)

Comments:

"Any government that glorifies one of the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century, as China has with the prominent display of Chairman Mao Tse-tung at the Olympic Games, deserves not only to be shunned but to be branded for what it is: a partner in the crime.

A picture may be worth a thousand words. The deaths of murdered millions speak even louder." --- Earnest Zimdars, Claremont.

奥运开幕式-新纳粹的表演-没有人的人们 Opening Ceremony - People without Humans

Kai Chen on Freedom 陈凯论自由










奥运开幕式-新纳粹的表演-没有人的人们 Opening Ceremony - People without Humans

每日一语：

北京奥运开幕式是1936年柏林纳粹奥运的重演。 其中心主题就是：“小心！不要阻止中国的崛起 - 我们将要主导世界”。 一个没有人的人群，一个没有个体的社会，一个没有意义的组合，一个没有内容的表象，一个没有自由的存在，一群没有独立尊严的机器，一些“不以为耻反以为荣”的宦奴娼、、。 这就是今天的中国。 --- 陈凯

Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony, as I expected with no surprise at all, was only the carbon copy of the 1936 Berlin Nazi Olympic Opening Ceremony. The distinct message is: "Be careful! Here we come and we will bury/crush you!" A people without human beings, a crowd without individuals, a collective without meaning, a manifestation without content, a party-state without freedom, a bunch of "borgs" without independence and dignity, a country of eunuslawhores without souls.... This is what you have just witnessed. This is indeed China today. --- Kai Chen

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Dear Visitors:

As I watched the last night's Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, with certain apprehension and boredom, I realized that the Chinese despots with their lackeys so lacked imagination that the entire show was nothing but a Chinese propaganda in a driest and most tasteless form. They are simply running out of tricks. They are simply to their wit's end. And indeed they are nearing their end.

The world has just witnessed the entire replay of the 1936 Berlin Olympics Opening Ceremony, with one exception - American president's attendance. As the robotic performers danced mechanically on the field, accompanied by some elaborate special effect to enhance the greatness of an evil empire, the world held its breath. Ghostly images from not too distant past must have come back in front many people's eyes. Bloodshed, torture, persecution, discrimination, mayhem, misery and deaths.... I bet many Jewish people watched the Opening Ceremony with lingering horror that invokes vivid images of the Holocaust.

As the NTDTV program "My Way" hit the screen, the communist 50-cent attack dogs retched up their vicious offensive on me. Here in Youpai.org, dirty names are called upon me and I expect more to come. I wear these dirty names on my lapel with pride. I indeed have done something right. I hit the nerves of despotism.

Here I want to remind people again of the coming danger and the free beings' responsibilities to ourselves and to our children. Be vigilant! Be ready! Be courageous! Be righteous!

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯

奥运精神还是奥运装潢 How much is Olympic ideal -- or decoration?

奥运精神还是奥运装潢 How much is Olympic ideal -- or decoration?

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-olyplaschke8-2008aug08,0,5181985.column

How much is Olympic ideal -- or decoration?

There is much good to be said about the people of Beijing. But is it all window dressing to cover national policies that conflict with the message of the Olympic movement?

Bill Plaschke
August 8, 2008

BEIJING -- The shirtless old man shuffled down the middle of the narrow street, teeth as brown as his socks, the decay spreading into a smile.

"People only look at the bad things in our country," Zhang Wen Bin said. "The Olympics will make them look at the good things."

Under a sweltering, smoggy midday sun in this ancient neighborhood, it is difficult to find those good things.

The alleys are lined with soda bottles filled with freshly boiled water. Dirty windows open to the sound of noisy fans clattering over junk-filled rooms. A bare-bottomed child plays in a murky puddle.

Everyone, it seems, is hunched over against the sun and sweating through the heat.

But, like Zhang, it seems everyone is also smiling.

Everyone but the man in the black sweat suit who has just walked up behind me.

While Zhang chatters happily about today's Olympic opening ceremony, the man stands motionless while staring at me. And staring. And staring.

Zhang's excitement about the interview soon turns to annoyance with the questioning.

"People never have deep thoughts about China," Zhang said. "These Olympics will make them think."

Tonight's caldron lighting at the spectacular new National Stadium will indeed be accompanied by the sparking of a world's conscience.

More than any Games in recent memory, the Beijing Olympics will truly make us think.

Can we celebrate the coronation of a world power amid the suffocation of its human rights?

Can we cheer the Olympics' sacred freedom of movement while the local sheriff monitors our every step?

Can we admire the gleaming sports stadiums that are surrounded by miles of hovels and shacks?

Will the Olympics affect us the way that man in the black suit affected the retired engineer Zhang Wen Bin, turning his smiles into anger?

"People who come here looking for negative things, they are not friends of China," Zhang said bitingly, abruptly ending the interview.

So what is it going to be?

Can we be a fan of the Olympics without being a friend of China?

Can we be both?

After three full days of wandering through the colorful, wonderfully mysterious streets of Beijing, I have two observations.

This place touches my heart. This place scares me to death.

I love the kindness of the Beijing people, who are so aggressively helpful that it sometimes feels as if they are literally carrying you through the day.

They meet you the moment you leave your hotel room, and never again do you feel alone until you return.

They talk with you. They walk with you. They laugh with you. You never feel lost. You never feel unwelcome.

No doubt the athletes will feel this kindness during the next two weeks, and we will surely see it in ovations and support.

But no doubt they will wonder, how much is Olympic ideal and how much is Olympic decoration?

It is tough to accept all the smiles in a place where the man who embodies the Olympic ideal, humanitarian speedskater Joey Cheek, was recently banned from the country because he has challenged China's human rights.

It is hard to understand the sincerity of a place that embraces strangers but forgets its own citizens.

Before visiting Zhang in his neighborhood this week, I visited thousands of Chinese at Tiananmen Square, the site of the tragic 1989 protests in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Chinese were killed by the government.

Nearly everyone I interviewed initially asked whether I was a friend of China.

And nobody expressed an ounce of sorrow for the memory of those slain protesters.

"Some bad people did some bad things here," said Iud Deti, a retiree. "And the government took care of them."

Either they refused to sympathize, or refused to even acknowledge.

"I don't know what you read, and I don't know if it's true," said a man named Hebei. "But the government never did anything to hurt me."

In trying to decipher the response to the Tiananmen Square memories Thursday, I attempted to call up an old protest video on YouTube.

I couldn't. The Chinese government had gotten there first.

There are websites we cannot see, information we cannot hear, interviews we should not do.

Walking down the street to the marvelous new swimming facility -- "The Water Cube" -- I wondered if the rows of stoic guards were there to direct me or spy on me.

During the week before the Games, everything here was running smoothly. Everything except my stomach.

Should the IOC even have brought these Games to Beijing?

Protesters of Chinese policies around the world would say no.

Given that the government here still won't allow basic freedoms, I would agree with those protesters.

But money talked, and now ethics will walk -- the only question being how long and how far.

The people of Beijing deserve better. The world deserves better. And the Olympics certainly deserve better.

The question of the next two weeks is, will the Chinese government give it to them, to us?

With the new venues and efficient infrastructures and Michael Phelps jumping into the pool first thing every morning, these Olympics have a chance to write a song that will live forever.

Will we be able to close our eyes long enough to hear it?

Do we even want to?

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.1c. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

难道姚明不承担个体责任吗？ Is Yao Ming not Responsible for His Action?

难道姚明不承担个体责任吗？ Is Yao Ming not Responsible for His Action?

每日一语：

难道一个奴隶就不承担容忍纵容专制奴役的个体责任了吗？ 爱迪（Eddie）的勇敢的个体行为与道德的清晰和姚明的懦弱与道德混乱形成了鲜明的对照。 我们每一个人都要反省我们在自身选择与决定中的个体道德责任。 --- 陈凯

Does a slave bear any individual responsibility for his being enslaved? Eddie's brave action with moral clarity provides a stark contrast to Yao Ming's timidity/fear with moral confusion. We as individuals should all reflect on what roles we play in tolerating and sustaining despotism and tyranny. --- Kai Chen

-------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Visitors:

How do you feel about this photo (Yao Ming with torch)? Proud? Shame? Stunned? Confused? Detest? Paralyzed? What?

Henry, Jojo and I went to Eddie's church yesterday to tie some yellow ribbons to express our support to his brave effort. We offered our prayers to Eddie to wish him a safe journey back home. We shed tears of pride for Eddie and concern over his safety.

Nowadays, I still sense the residual Chinese collectivism in many that is the basis for tyranny/despotism. It seems the collective pride to them is somehow more important than a single individual's dignity and freedom. If that is so, they and I are entirely in the opposite of the spectrum. If being a Chinese is more important to them than being a free man, they and I are in two entirely different planets.

Have you ever reflected on where all your suffering and misery (in China) came from? Are you, as an individual, somehow not responsible at all for all that misery and deaths in China? Is Yao Ming who bears the torch of despotism and tyranny not responsible for his own action at all? Is a slave ever responsible for his own helplessness and hopelessness?

One must answer all these questions, in order to strive toward freedom.

Best. Kai Chen

美国牧师在北京发起公民抗命行动 Eddie My Friend in Action

美国牧师在北京发起公民抗命行动 Eddie My Friend in Action

要求中国政府释放人权犯通过人权公约

【大纪元8月7日讯】北京时间8月6日，一位来自加州的美国人在北京发起名为牛牤公民抗命行动，要求中共当局释放人权犯通过人权公约。这名叫EDDIE的美国牧师分别把北京建国门外的国贸饭店417房间和王府井的和平宾馆1602房间，布置成类似对人权活动家进行暴力刑讯杀人囚禁室的血腥模样(见真实图片)，并且在每个房间墙壁上用油漆写的口号“我们的世界,我们的恶梦”和释放维权法律顾问郭飞雄，作家师涛，爱滋病人权活动家胡佳，法轮功学员徐娜和家庭教会牧师张荣亮以及要求全国人大通过公民权利和政治权利国际公约（英文缩写ICCPR）。墙壁上还写有圣经旧约箴言31章8至9节，为没有声音的代言的教导。

今天上午10点该教会在洛杉机下列地址召开记者招待会，公布介绍整个行动计划的情况。EDDIE牧师已经顺利离开北京到外地躲藏，在适当时机自首，并号召全球人士关注日益恶化的中国人权状况。

Kai Chen Speaking Out 陈凯视频演讲支持艾迪牧师：

德国学者：北京效仿“希特勒奥运”Beijing 2008 Emulates Berlin 1936

德国学者：北京效仿“希特勒奥运”Beijing 2008 Emulates Berlin 1936

德国学者：北京效仿“希特勒奥运”

(博讯北京时间2008年8月04日 转载)

北京奥运会的目的和1936年德国希特勒举办奥运会的目的一样.

【看中国记者陈锦缘报导】据英国《泰晤士报》年初报道：“中国举办北京奥运会的目的和1936年德国希特勒举办的奥运会的目的一样，是为了自吹自擂。”

外交部发言人秦刚3月25日则坚持这是侮辱性的观点。那么纳粹头子希特勒如何利用奥运会？本报记者于8月3日采访了德国达姆斯特大学体育系，研究体育和心理学的阿里斯·勒斯克先生。

希特勒为何全力以赴，举办奥运会？

纳粹未上台前十分仇视、反对奥运会，他们认为德国运动员在1932年奥运会上与黑人一起比赛，有损日耳曼民族的尊严。1933年希特勒任德国总理并建立了第一个集中营，用于迫害犹太人、吉卜赛人、黑人等，并决定反过来全力举办奥运会，提出了"体育与政治"分开的口号。

开幕式

针对德国日益加剧的种族歧视和宗教迫害状况，国际社会开始传出一片谴责之声。1931 年德国柏林1936 年获奥运会主办权，不少国家纷纷站出来抵制柏林奥运会。

勒斯克先生认为：“纳粹（NAZI nationales Sozialismus）德语涵义是 ‘国家社会主义’。其实是一种来源于法国、日耳曼民族的社会主义。希特勒利用奥运会展现了“国家社会主义”的‘和平’和‘合法性’，美化纳粹和法西斯独裁主义。掩盖其挑起世界战争的野心，欺骗世界民众。”

勒斯克先生认为：中共面对外忧、内患和针对恶劣人权记录的批评声，希望通过成功举办奥运，来使其独裁统治合法化。他说：“中共想通过奥运，展现一个20世纪超级大国形象，达到一种粉饰和平，美化共产主义、社会主义的目的，转移国际社会对其恶劣人权记录的视线。”

希特勒如何利用奥运会？

为了成功举办奥运，希特勒政权印了成吨宣传纳粹德国"繁荣与昌盛"的资料，耗费了巨额资金，用花岗石、大理石等兴建了一座能容10万人的大型运动场。

体育馆

还有一个有两万座位的游泳池，以及体操馆、篮球场等，还修建了一个比洛杉矶奥运会更豪华的奥运村。并第一次利用了希特勒盛装出席了柏林奥运会的开幕式，并放飞两万只白鸽表和平。

勒斯克先生称：“柏林街头一夜间所有的抗议者、乞丐、妓女全部消失，奥运旗和纳粹标志充斥柏林城，全德国发行了奥运邮票和彩票，并颁布了‘绝不允许示威’的希特勒条款。”

奥运旗和纳粹旗帜充斥柏林

“中共花巨资建造‘鸟巢’；截访，封网，关闭妓女集聚处，各种‘安全措施’，发行奥运币钞，都和当年柏林奥运如出一撤。”

希特勒如何进行种族、宗教迫害？

柏林奥运会正式开幕前，德国当时超过一半的犹太人被强制失业。未经过任何法庭审理程序，将犹太人、天主教徒、耶和华见证会教徒、共济会会员集体关押在柏林北部郊区的Orianeburg集中营。

勒斯克先生称：“希特勒借用奥运达到了‘种族清洗’的目的，中共在奥运前夕，不经过任何法庭审判程序，大举拘捕法轮功学员、地下教会人员、民主人士、西藏宗教人士，也是斯特勒奥运前种族迫害、宗教迫害的翻版。”

为何希特勒能成功？

从事研究体育学、心理学的勒斯克先生表示，希特勒成功利用了奥运，德国奥运代表队大获全胜：33金26银30铜。是因为他成功利用了一种心理学现象。勒斯克先生以一个集体酒会为例解释了该现象：

“希特勒明白奥运会对世界民众来说，是一个欢庆节日。而心理学理论表明：如果一组人群在一个小屋子里庆贺，他们会‘团结性’的庆贺，而这种‘团结性’恰恰来源于‘社会主义’。”

勒斯克先生解释道：“在这种欢庆活动中，人们很容易处于忘我的状态，‘我’将融入到‘德国民族’中。希特勒利用了这一点，德国运动员的优异成绩，使民众产生感到一种民族自豪感，从而认同纳粹政权，也对纳粹同时产生出一种感激感和认同感。”

奥运与纳粹联合在一起

勒斯克先生说：“当中国运动员在奥运会上获得非常多的奖牌时，普通的中国民众将会产生一种心理：我是共产主义国家的一员，共产党的运动员胜利了，我们的政党--共产党胜利了，太好了！共产党战胜了世界，共产党还是很好的。而这种思想恰恰正是中共梦寐以求的！” (博讯 boxun.com)