here is much that is frightening about China.  There is much that is frightening about us.  While I love the idea of the Olympic Games, it is seems to painfully clear that we morally culpable insofar as we support the 2008 Olympic Games in China.  This is because China’s human rights record is absolutely deplorable.  There is the issue of China and Tibet and there is the issue of China and Darfur.  We have a blatant violation of human rights in both cases.  Indeed, we have what is none other than a form of genocide in the latter case. 

Yet, there is a deafening silence on the part of the nations of the world.  For instance, people who think that the State of Israel is none other than evil incarnate have in most cases not lifted a voice against China.  The European Union has not taken a hard stance against China.  Nor has either Canada or the United States.

Indeed, all sorts of people who give the impression of being terribly concerned about issues of racial justice have remained quite silent.  Whoopi Goldberg, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson are three who come readily to mind.  You would think that they would be up in arms about Darfur.  Just how it is they have not called China racist, when they can see racism in just about every imaginable scenario involving a black and a non-black, is surely stunning. 

The measured restraint with regard to the actions of China tells us just how hypocritical the nations of the world have become.   The last real unified international stance against evil was in regards to the Apartheid of South Africa. 

The explanation for this, alas, is that the nations of the world are too beholden to China.  Thanks to outsourcing, China is a most formidable economic power.  And the people of the world generally are more interested in their economic well-being than exhibiting moral excellence, even when that comes to saving people from brazenly immoral behavior. 

South Africa of the days of Apartheid was never the economic power that China is.  So, the nations could pummel South Africa for its immoral behavior involving Apartheid without fearing grave economic repercussions.  China, however, is a different matter entirely.  Harshly criticizing China is rather like putting one’s head into the mouth of a lion.  Or so it is if we do not all stand in complete unison. 

Of course, the Olympic Games are one thing and China is another.  Just so, there is the symbolic significance of holding the Games in China.  Insofar as the Games are symbolic of moral and physical excellence—and surely that is part of ideal of the Games, then it follows that holding them in China bestows a significant measure of moral credibility upon China.  For China will forever be able to say that the Games were held in China and that shows that China’s moral record cannot be as bad as people say it is.  My view is very simple: China should never be able to shield its immorality behind the Olympic Games.  Thus, to go on with the games in China as if China has not—in the 3rd Millennium, no less—clearly demonstrated a gross and crass insensitivity to the humanity of others is utterly despicable and most morally repugnant. 

It is stupefying that we are not all standing en masse with Steven Spielberg who, on matters of moral principle, refused to work on the closing and opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games. 

The demonstrations of the French against the Olympic Torch being carried through the streets of Paris make me proud of the French.  And I was happy for the protests that took place in London against the Olympic Torch. 

We should not honor evil; we should not honor those who so blatantly participate in evil; and we should not give those who so blatantly participate in evil any cloak behind which to hide their evil behavior.  Accordingly, the 2008 Olympic Games should not be honored.  For China is not just a sleeping giant that has awakened, it is a sleeping immoral giant that is indifferent to the immoralities that it commits just so long as its interests are being advanced.  In this regard, there has not been a more crass and brazen nation than Nazi Germany itself. 

Evil is constantly testing the bounds of morality in order to see what it can get away with.  Each measure of silence on the part of others in the face of blatantly evil behavior enables a giant and wicked step on the part of the evil wrongdoer.  For the silence in the face of wrongdoing is in fact a very loud signal that a given measure of immorality will be tolerated. 

Some commitments should not be honored.  If I promised to be the best man at Opidopo’s wedding, and I learn that as a matter of fact he has been sexually abusing children, then I should refuse to stand as his best man.  It is simply irrelevant that Opidopo has been counting on me to be there for him. 

China’s moral track-record is abominable.  And that is bad enough.  But tolerating that bad record says something quite damning about our own track-record.  Indeed, there is a perfectly good sense in which we are even more despicable.  Or so it is if indeed it is true that evil would back down if only we should stand up. 

Again, notice the comparison between Nazi Germany and China: Hitler counted upon the nations of Europe not to take much interest in his wronging of the Jews.  China is counting on the nations of the world not to take much interest in its wrong in Tibet and Darfur.  A little moral indifference on the part of those who claim to be morally upright goes a very long ways towards facilitating the pathway of evil. 

We talk about people putting their money where their mouth is.  It is the other around in this instance: People are putting their mouth where their money is; and China is counting on it.  We are enabling a moral trajectory of evil.