China, Human Rights and the Olympics – A Call For Perspective and Discussion

Jack Huang and I have been discussing and debating China, human rights and the Olympics for several weeks in seeds and articles clipped to this Olympics group, most recently at Jack's seeds here and here

Put simply we agree the U.S. might not be in a position to preach to China about human rights (it has its own problems on that front) - and that China's human rights policies have improved since T. Square - but we disagree on how much China has hassled journalists and if protests against China are appropriate.
I thought with this piece I would attempt to spark a wider discussion. I will post five questions below and we will see where things go from there.

The political issues and topics of China and theprotests in Olympics should, I believe, be put into historical perspective. It is no coincidence that I have been reading, in recent weeks, the excellent book about the 1960 Olympics. I thought it would be handy to learn about Olympics history as I prepare to write articles covering the Olympics.

I took a weekend away from the Internet (which was incredibly freeing) and finished this book.
Friday night I read the page containing this excerpt, which provides an excellent summary and history of political protests

I excerpt this to start this discussion. It was prefaced by a summary of the controversy and protests surrounding whether South Africa should be allowed to enter the Olympics considering it was excluding its black athletes.

In a secret ballot the following year, the IOC executive committee voted to readmit South Africa, but the fallout before Mexico City was so intense, with as many as forty countries threatening to boycott, that the decision was reversed. Questions of race and African continued to haunt the Games thereafter. In 1968 U.S. sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith struck perhaps the most iconic pose of protest in Olympic history, raising their fists and bowing their heads on the medal stand to force the world to notice the lingering problems of racism in America. In 1972 in Munch, several black African nations, including Ethiopa, walked out in protest of the presence of white-ruled Rhodesia. Four years later, at the 1976, Montreal Olympics, another boycott was staged by black African nations in protest against New Zealand, whose most prominent rugby team had been touring South Africa. The controversies would continue for more than three decades after Michael Scott, representing the South African Sports Association and the Campaign Against Race Discrimation in Sport, arrived at the Luxor Hotel in Rome on that late August day in 1960 and sought his first meeting with the Brundage and the IOC. It would not end until South Africa was readmitted in July 1991, after the fall of its white supremacist government.

Five questions are below (separated to keep the issues and topics more organized)

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