Mistake '08?

While traveling through China, one of the things that stands out is the massive relocations that are ongoing. No matter where you go in China, it seems the government is forcing people out of their homes and into high rise apartment buildings; and nowhere is this more prominent that in Beijing. However, in one sense, Beijing is very different from the rest of the country, because there all the re-locating is being done "to prepare for the Olympics" in 2008. Deep down, the relocating of people in Beijing probably has little to do with the Olympics, and would have happened with or without the '08 Games; but still, it begs the question: why are we in the rest of the World providing excuses for the Chinese government?

First off, let me clarify exactly what the Chinese government is doing and why it's wrong. Hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of Beijing residents are being moved out of the homes their families have lived in for years and into new high-rise apartment buildings. The problem, of course, is that there is little or no choice involved for the people being re-located; and, unlike in the United States where we have 'Eminent Domain', those evicted from their homes aren't given adequate monetary compensation.

On the face of it, there seems little the United States or any other Nation could do to directly stop a country like China, which has the largest standing army in the world; but, at the very least, we should refrain from condoning their more malevolent Communist policies. Unfortunately, that's just what the International Olympic Committee did when it awarded the 2008 Olympics to Beijing. Now, anything the Chinese government does in Beijing, whether it be massive relocations or something much worse, can be done under the guise of preparing for the 2008 Summer Games. To make matters worse, there is really nothing the rest of us can say, because we're the ones who decided to put the Chinese in charge of the '08 Games in the first place. Surely, when it comes to trying to fight some of the more terrible elements in the Chinese government, the rest of the World can do better than that.