The China Teaching Web

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I want to feel sorry for Olympic Press Chief Kevan Gosper; he seems like a nice guy. As a former Olympic athlete, Gosper was a silver medalist in a 400 metre relay in 1956. He has been a member of the Olympic Committee for over 30 years and has been honored in a number of countries for his work with the Olympics. Recently, as the  IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) front man in Beijing, he has been the target of fierce international criticism as details have emerged about the CCP’s failure to live up to the promise that the Internet would be uncensored in Beijing during the Olympic Games. Gosper complained earlier this week that he felt like the “fall guy” and that he suspected that a ’secret’ deal had been “engineered” between the IOC senior leadership and the Chinese.

While I wish I could feel sorry for Gosper, there is just one problem. Every time he opens his mouth, he seems to be defending or at least speaking for the Chinese government. Yesterday, for example, in response to criticism about the Internet censorship he said “that we are not working in a democratic society, we’re working in a communist society.” He continued by stating that ”this is China, and they are proud to be a communist society.”  Really? Did the IOC not know that China was a proud “communist society” when it bestowed the Olympics upon Beijing eight years ago or is this another surprise?  Let me guess. China also promised the IOC that it would become “a democratic society” just in time for the Olympic Games, right? Forget about China being a proud communist society. Mr Gosper and the IOC are apparently proud to be associated with the Chinese Communist Party. After all, they are defending the Chinese government’s censorship policies much better than the CCP ever could have dreamed of doing itself.

Gosper also attempted to defend China’s Internet censorship by saying that “we have always had an understanding, and we haven’t necessarily talked about it, that any sovereign government will block pornographic sites and what they might consider subversive, or sites which are contrary to the national interest.”  What does that mean exactly? Are Olympic journalists only complaining about Internet censorship because they cannot access their favorite porn sites in Beijing? The fact that Gosper would even mention pornography in this statement borders on the ridiculous. Next time you walk into an Internet cafe in China, make a quick survey of what other people are doing. You will quickly discover that pornography is readily available on the Internet in China; it is also widely available on the streets and in shops in major cities. The fact is, if the Chinese government spent a little more time trying to rid the Internet of pornography and a little less time trying to censor political sites, Chinese society would probably be much better off.

Gosper also seemed to be suggesting that it is normal and acceptable for “sovereign” governments to censor the Internet. Who is he representing when he makes such statements? The IOC? Australia? The CCP? It is getting hard to tell as this story becomes more and more confusing. The fact is, the IOC has more or less validated China’s suppression of free speech through its weak attempts to defend itself in front of the international community. This is certainly not the first time that the IOC has been embroiled in controversy, but this episode will not be soon forgotten by the world.

The best course of action for Gosper would be to simply keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, as the Olympic Press Chief, that is not so easy to do. If the IOC hopes to ’save any face’ in this situation, it needs to stop defending Beijing and start demanding that the government lives up to its promises. The CCP, of course, will naturally be furious, and continue to break its promises, but what does the current leadership of the IOC have to lose? It will be most likely long gone before China is ever given the Olympics again. It is time for the IOC to ‘grow a backbone’ and at least ‘talk tough’ on China’s broken promises. But will the IOC get tough with China? It may be too late. The 2008 Olympics begin in less than a week.