As we watch the Summer Olympics, we see the pageantry and the heroics of the athletes from around the world.
We don't see the oppression that has persisted for centuries in China and that continues to persist under the very noses of those who are walking the streets of Beijing.
TV cameras and microphones have been installed in all the taxi cabs and are remote controlled by the authorities to be sure that no one says or does something threatening to the regime. 130,000 police and soldiers are present ostensibly to protect the attendees. They also help assure that the opposition will be suppressed during the games.
300,000 Chinese citizens augment the 130,000 people mentioned above as additional eyes and ears. Reporters are subject to censorship. Passports are summarily pulled from some reporters who have sought to broadcast by telephone back to their home countries. That is a subtle form of reminder that the regime is in complete control and that one shouldn't forget it.
Against this backdrop, the President stood aligned with Chinese protestants this morning to deliver a few words of support. We don't know what kind of persecution will follow when the reporters and TV crews leave, but we can remember the Tienanmen Square episode of a few years ago and draw upon those scenes of brutality to get some idea.
China is China. Nothing more and nothing less. It owns a big chunk of America. It spies on us every day. It works to find weaponry that can be used against us. It still wishes to defeat us; if not on an actual battlefield, then in commerce. We seem to forget these things, but they are critical.
