Beijing's number one enemy: anonymous editorial

boston Globe: In the run-up to this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, Chinese authorities have been cracking down on peaceful critics of Communist Party rule, on Buddhist monks and their supporters in Tibet, and on Muslims protesting discrimination in Xinjiang Province. The victims are invariably treated as enemies of the state. That was the case again Thursday, when the human rights activist Hu Jia was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for "trying to subvert the state's political power and socialist system."

more stories like thisWhat the Beijing bosses do not understand - what any competent public relations expert could tell them - is that they have become their own worst enemies. If they wanted to show the world that the International Olympic Committee was justified in granting the 2008 Games to Beijing, they would have left the idealistic Hu Jia free to help people with HIV/AIDS, to campaign for the environment, and to exercise the right of free speech commended in the Chinese communists' constitution. Instead, he was convicted and sentenced in a legal procedure that Amnesty International called "unfair and politically motivated."

China's rigid authoritarians seem to be going out of their way to prove their critics right - to demonstrate that despite its rapid economic growth, China remains too scornful of human rights to be a worthy host for the Olympics. The regime's failure to comprehend the harm it is doing to itself was evident Thursday in foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu's comments on the case. She warned outsiders not to "interfere with China's internal affairs by the excuse of human rights."

Only a regime that has no respect for human rights could issue such a statement. The reality is that Beijing uses its mantra about not interfering in its internal affairs to excuse its violations of human rights.