China rips Spielberg for Beijing Games pullout
'The West wants to bind sports and politics, this is a clumsy trick'
 Kevork Djansezian / AP file | Director Steven Spielberg announced he would no longer act as an artistic adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. |
BEIJING - Efforts to link China to the Darfur crisis are “irresponsible and unfair,” a government spokesman said in comments published Thursday, following director Steven Spielberg’s decision to drop out as a Beijing Olympics adviser on human rights grounds.
The Hollywood heavyweight had been brought in as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of Games, but said he will not participate because he felt China wasn’t doing enough to pressure Sudan into ending the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region.
“The Darfur issue is not China’s internal affair and was not started by China. Linking the two is nonsense; it is also irresponsible and unfair,” an unidentified spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. was quoted as saying in the state-run Global Times newspaper.
“Many people think the Olympics are a sports event but the West wants to bind sports and politics, this is a clumsy trick,” said the highly nationalistic daily, published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Chinese officials have consistently said they opposed any attempt to “politicize” the highly anticipated Olympics, which begin Aug. 8. But neither the Foreign Ministry or the Beijing organizing committee have responded specifically to Spielberg’s decision.
Spielberg had indicated as early as August that he might not take part in the ceremonies. The director said he had given up hope that China would take a more aggressive approach toward Sudan.
China is believed to have special influence with the Islamic regime because it buys two-thirds of the country’s oil exports while selling it weapons and defending Khartoum in the U.N. Security Council.
Fighting between government-backed militia and rebels in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and left an estimated 2.5 million displaced since 2003.
“While China’s representatives have conveyed to me that they are working to end the terrible tragedy in Darfur, the grim realities of the suffering continue unabated,” Spielberg said in a statement.
Beijing has invested billions of dollars and its national prestige into what it hopes will be a glorious showcase of China’s rapid development from impoverished agrarian nation to rising industrial power.
|
Yet it has been unable to turn back a rising tide of negative global opinion that joins concerns over the city’s notorious pollution, snarled traffic and displacement of people for the construction of Olympic venues.
In recent days, the U.S. Congress and a coalition of Nobel Peace Prize winners, politicians and elite athletes have also lobbied Beijing over Darfur.
Actress Mia Farrow and other activists delivered an open letter addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Chinese Mission to the United Nations in New York on Tuesday.
ALSO ON THIS STORY |
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
- Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM OTHER SPORTS |
 Other sports Section Front |
| Add Other sports headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links