Free the olympics!

[Skybird]

China has just announced a ban for all foreign students during July and August. Several tens of thousands of students have to leave the country for the Olympics. Affected are also academics and scientists of foreign origin.

If somebody in the IOC still had infantile illusions about how much the Olympics would help to reform China, now at the latest he should have been lectured for the better.

Criterions for Visas already had been made sharper.

Officially they say it is about the international terror threat. But that all regions of the world and all nations are affected by the new regulations, is a contradiction. It does not take a rocket scientists that they want to expell all person groups that even show a limited risk of raising unwated political questions.

German: http://www.welt.de/politik/article1911190/China_weist_alle_auslaendischen_Studenten_aus.html

[clive bradbury]

Not exactly relevant to the above post, I know, but I would be interested to know how many people care about athletics any more. Obviously the Olympics is much more than that, but the athletics has always been their prinicipal showcase.

Over the last year or so Michael Johnson has been stating on UK tv that he is worried about the future of his sport as no one watches it anymore. I have to confess to being one of those. I love sport (with the exception of soccer, which I despise), and used to follow athletics pretty closely. Now I just never watch it. Anyone else the same? Is Johnson right?

I am quite looking forward to the Olympics coming to the UK, and will probably go to several events, but they are more likely to be sports I've never been to before, such as the cycling or rowing. Don't think I shall attend the athletics.

[Konovalov]

Why free the Olympics? It was the IOC and it's members who gave the games to Beijing, China. I say free the Olympics from the IOC who created the mess in the first place.

[DeepIron]

We can't "free the Olympics" because we're too busy putting up barricades...:shifty:

[Platapus]

Do you have a citation in English?

I follow this stuff and have not seen this mentioned in my other sources. Since I can't read German, I can't comment on whether this article is accurate or not.

Nothing on BBC and nothing on France24 which are usually pretty up to date on this stuff.

[Skybird]

Do you have a citation in English?

I follow this stuff and have not seen this mentioned in my other sources. Since I can't read German, I can't comment on whether this article is accurate or not.

Nothing on BBC and nothing on France24 which are usually pretty up to date on this stuff.
It was just in, so I assume the English souces will follow soon.

When I pick something in German I quick-check with Google and the usual British and American e-papers if there is an English article on it as wel, preferrably on page 1. But I do not spend an hour with it... If I do not find something within 5 min utes, I give the German source.

[Platapus]

Great I will look forward with great interest when this story comes in.

I won't automatically buy into the "china is bad" paradigm though until I read about the whole issue.

As in many issues, there is probably more to it than is first reported. :know:

[Catfish]

Hello,
i am sure Skybird already said all about China and its regime, and more :lol:

But i really wonder what those organizations, if they are not directly making money with it, have to say why anyone should support these games in China ? Because it helps the people ?! Well only recently wages have doubled in China, they are now at 30 cents - great !
"It will help the people in the long run" - yes it took 9 years from 1936 to a real new beginning when the whole world supported Hitler's olympic games. If those games served anyone it was Hitler, and the same will happen in China and to their hilarious communist party.

A company like Google directly supports censorship, Audi, VW and whatnot even more, and China announces they have found weapons of mass destruction in Tibetan temples :rotfl:... those Audis can kill a lot of people in the right hands i'm sure.
We should take all those managers that shoved industries over to China, and never let them come back again. Maybe they don't want at all anymore after a month of traditional chinese brainwashing.

Greetings,
Catfish

[Skybird]

Do you have a citation in English?

I follow this stuff and have not seen this mentioned in my other sources. Since I can't read German, I can't comment on whether this article is accurate or not.

Nothing on BBC and nothing on France24 which are usually pretty up to date on this stuff.
It was just in, so I assume the English souces will follow soon.

When I pick something in German I quick-check with Google and the usual British and American e-papers if there is an English article on it as wel, preferrably on page 1. But I do not spend an hour with it... If I do not find something within 5 min utes, I give the German source.

Another Germa source:

FAZ reports that since three weeks no multiple visa are given anymore, a German tourist company was told in a letter from the Chinese embassy - but the official emblem on the Chinese embassy on the top of the official letter-paper had been covered by the Chinese. For business people, the Viasa restrictions already have caused international anger, especially in Asia. There seem to be some confusion, writes the FAZ, about the banning of foreign students - it is possible that they had not gotten the order in writing, but verbally only.

http://www.faz.net/s/RubEC1ACFE1EE274C81BCD3621EF555C83C/Doc~EC2E73C383D9441718D152283DFB4672E~ATpl~Ecommon ~Scontent.html

[Catfish]

Hello,
they just do not understand - the wise chinese government just does not want crowded cities - imagine what could happen with all this jostling on the streets. The poor fellows. ..

This is all so ridiculous and obvious as well - i wonder how any politician and manager can still stand up and defend any position to support this dictatorship. Liars, all of them.

Catfish

[Skybird]

A third German source - the internet-site of a weekly magazine comparing to Der Spiegel - now confirms restrictions on Visa, and the situation concerning the banning of foreign students to be confused and unclear. At least two universities in Bejing have confirmed the ban so far, however. The Chinese foreign ministry so far does not comment and neither confirms nor rejects. Maybe they play the waiting game to see if they can get through with it without spiking major international protests, and if not, claim to have been misunderstood from the beginning.

http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/china-verwirrung-um-angebliche-ausweisung-von-studenten_aid_295798.html
http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/olympia-china-schottet-sich-ab_aid_295917.html