Toronto Sun: Still evil Beijing thumbs its nose at the world

There's an old dictum adopted by communism that the end justifies the means.

And the use of this strategy is only too apparent in the latest human rights abuses coming out of Communist China.

During the past century, Communist bosses such as Lenin, Mao, Ho and Castro -- and their followers -- interpreted the dictum to mean that any lie, torture, murder, atrocity and double-crossing of friend or foe was okay.

And China's Mao had another cute little saying: "Power comes out of the barrel of a gun."

So, it shouldn't be any wonder that in the propaganda and power politics game leading up to Beijing beating out Toronto and Paris for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Chinese government used all-out lies, deceit, threats and pressure to win.

For instance, China's horrific record for human-rights abuses was held up by many opponents as the main reason the Beijing Butchers -- China's rulers -- should be turned down.

Amnesty International condemned China for its executions of 1,781 people in the three months leading up to the July meeting of the International Olympic Committee that voted 56-22 for Beijing. The executions, often held before packed stadiums, were for such things as stealing gasoline, fraud, embezzlement, drug offences, pimping, and "destabilizing the state."

It also seemed to mean nothing to the IOC members that the European Parliament declared "China's disastrous record on human rights" made it unsuitable as an Olympics venue. [...]

And they also ignored that the Beijing Butchers -- the guys who ordered the slaughter of their own people in 1989 at Tiananmen Square -- were jailing and murdering members of the Falun Gong group.

It seemed many took their lead from IOC head Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was determined to hand the plum to Beijing. He spread the word that giving the Games to Beijing would cause China to improve its treatment of people.

So, what's happened?

This week, the Chinese sentenced 45 "diehard" Falun Gong members to prison terms of up to 13 years. This came days after sentencing four Falun Gong members up to life in prison.

If the sorry Chinese record continues, some of the jailed people will likely suffer the same fate as other Falun Gong members -- with at least 100 killed while in prison.

As for the Tibetans, reports also emerged this week that the Beijing Butchers had sent armed police to drive hundreds of Tibetan nuns, monks and Buddhist scholars from a nunnery and monastic institute in China.

So, it seems such critics as Amnesty International and the European Parliament were right -- dead right.

But the Beijing Butchers have their Olympics prize -- while thumbing their thumbs and guns at the rest of the world.

http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-08-22-0032.html