From Mia Farrow to François Bayrou to US Congressmen, every news or report about boycotting Beijing Olympics has provoked rounds of anger from China's netizens.
In a widely cross-posted blog post Boycotting Olympic: A farce doomed to failure, Wang Chong, a political commentor, grouped the boycotting Beijing Olympics advocators into three categories.
第一,借奥运说事达到个人目的
First, those who use Olympics to get their ends.
Wang Chong believed François Bayrou had his hidden agenda when he advocated boycotting Beijing Olympics. François Bayrou wanted to take advantage from this topic to campaign for votes.
第二,来自反华的右翼分子。
Second, those right-wingers who are anti-China, such as Shintaro Ishihara from Japan.
第三,一些非政府组织和右翼小报。
Third, some NGO and Right-wing tabloid. For example, RFA and the Washington Times
任何抵制北京奥运的言行都将注定没有市场,注定失败。
Any words and deeds of boycotting the Beijing Olympics will have no market and will be doomed to failure.
In response to US Congress raps China over Darfur, blogger Yingzi wrote Darfur problem exposes the selfish American hegemony.
这是怎么回事?简直离谱至极啊。这关你们美国人屁事啊。
What is this all about? It's going too far. It's none of your American business.
…尽管言论荒唐,却能反映出他们内心的秘密。
…Despite the absurd remarks, it can reflect their inner secret.
正是因为中国经济迅速发展,中国的崛起让他们感到害怕了。
It is because of China's rapid economic development. China's rise frightens them.
在这次事件中,达尔富尔地区爆发了内战,迫使西方石油公司纷纷撤退,而中国公司却趁机进入获取石油资源的进口。这就让美国人感到不爽和恐惧了。一些美国人 心中不满,就要找个机会来发泄咯。
In this case, a civil war broke out in the Darfur region, it has made the Western oil companies withdraw, while Chinese companies have seized the opportunity to enter and import the oil. This makes the Americans feel bad and they are alarmed. Some Americans are resentful, so they must find an opportunity to vent their anger.
…
其实根本原因就是,美国人自己的利益受到损害,而中国却能从中得到发展,美国人眼红了,更重要是美国人害怕我们中国的强大,怕他们的老大地位不保啊。
…
In fact, the main reason is that American's own interests are damaged, but China is able to benefit. The Americans are jealous. More importantly, Americans are afraid of a strong China. They worry that they will lose their leading position (in the world).
ShiShao believed that the US is playing a political game.
近年,中国在非洲的影响力在不断增大。在之前,存在于非洲的势力主要是以法国为首的欧洲和美国。选现在,西方认为中国在非洲的存在已经影响到这些国家的利益在非洲的存在。他们于是对中国”另眼相待”了。
In recent years, China's influence in Africa has kept increasing. Previously, French-led Europe and the US are the main powers in Africa. But, now, the West consider China's presence in Africa has affected the interests of their countries. So they view China “in a new light.”
…
美国和欧洲固守着”零和”的游戏规则,认为当有一方的利益增大之时,另一方必然会减少。他们认为中国在非洲影响增大会损害到他们的利益,于是极力排挤中国在非洲的存在。其实,这中思想可以休矣。
The United States and Europe think it is a zero-sum game. They believe if one party's interests are increasing, the other party's interests are bound to decrease. They think that China's increasing influence in Africa would be damaging to their interests, so they are crowding out the Chinese presence in Africa. In fact, it is time to stop thinking in this way.
…西方国家的利益依然可以在非洲这个正在增大发展的空间的保持并不断扩大。这需要中国、美国及世界上所有国家的努力一起来消除非洲的贫穷、落后,让非洲发展起来,让大家达到”共赢”局面,这才是正确的选择。
…Western countries’ interests in Africa can still maintain and grow in this continually developing space. It needs China, the US and all the countries of the world to work together to eradicate poverty in Africa and to develop Africa, so that we can have a “win-win” situation. This is the correct choice.
John Zhou had a similar opinion. He wrote
我的感觉是西方一些势力会利用一切机会,遏制正在崛起的中国。
My feeling is that some Western powers will use every opportunity to contain a rising China.
But there is a rare voice in this post's comment. An anonym commented,
lz已经被中共洗脑了,只要外国和中国过不去,lz就认为是西方在遏制中国崛起,但是lz知道因为达富尔问题已经有几十万的难民和成千上万的死亡吗?看来lz真该到难民营去住几天.
中国因为自己的石油利益想苏丹政府提供军火,直接导致了问题的严重化,这是应该谴责的
The author has been brainwashed by the Chinese Communists Party. Once foreign countries are making troubles to China, the author consider that they are trying to contain the rise of China. But does the author know that the Darfur crisis has made tens of thousands of refugees and tens of thousands of deaths? Looks like the author needs stay in the refugee camp for a few days.
China provide the Sudanese government weaphons for its interests of oil. This has worsened the problem. This should be condemned.
27 comments
“China provide the Sudanese government weaphons for its interests of oil.”
Well, like most American in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting or the Columbine school shooting would say: “It is not the gun manufacturers who are at fault, but the people who uses it”. So in this case, they should understand, it is not the weapons manufacturer that sells weapon to Sudan that is at fault but how the people who uses those weapons.
Two, years ago I attended a meeting of human rights groups and labor organizations in New York about how to organize campaigns around the Olympics in 2008. I remember the Chinese representatives were very clear about the danger of hurting feelings of national pride. What to do? Is any attempt to campaign for better conditions for workers that manufacture sports good etc bound to create a national lash back with tensions so high already?
This is one place they are following the issue (from a western perspective): http://www.playthegame.org/
Thanks for this post and the translations Jacky as it is very much appreciated. We who write prolifically about issues and news in and out of Africa have been keeping a very close eye on Beijing’s new love affair with African leaders and the business elite.
I have been waiting for such reactions from citizens of the PRC re: the increased international pressure to get Beijing to stop supporting the murderous regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir in Sudan. I must admit that the words from the “anonymous” commenter was a bit of a surprise.
I featured your brief post in a detailed article I wrote and published today over at my blog and trust me it was not kind toward the Yuan-Yuan diplomacy of Beijing’s greed-driven invasion of the African continent in search of natural resources and corrupt, despotic African leaders. If you ask me, it seems that Beijing is “going for the gold” in Africa but in the end will end up with a bust.
Re BRE:
I think China’s presence in Africa is a lot more civil than that of America’s in Iraq.
Thanks for translating this, Jacky – very important to see the reactions to this idea from Chinese bloggers. I think this post is a great example of the importance of translating blog posts for a wider audience…
Most China’s people believe that the Olympics is and should be a pure sports event. I think this is one important reason why China’s people question the intentions and dislike the idea of boycotting Beijing Olympics.
Playfair Alliance accused China used child labour in manufacturing Olympics products. The reactions of China’s netizens in this case are much more balanced.
To clarify, Mia Farrow has never called for a boycott of the olympics. To learn more abour Farrow’s campaign, please visit http://www.dreamfordarfur.org.
I’m sorry, but given the complete callousness with which so many Chinese people treat each other, I just don’t think most of them can work up much concern for some black people in Sudan. Most Chinese seem to view world affairs the same as they view their own society: everything has an ulterior motive, and just as somebody getting robbed on the street is “not my business” for most Chinese people, campaigns of mass murder and rape are, in the eyes of Chinese, not the concern of any but the parties involved.
I’m very happy to see the exception in the last comment, but unfortunatley, in my experience, when it comes to anything that puts China in any way at odds with other countries, the ratio of reasonable or balanced comments to pure garbage is even worse that the sampling here.
And Mahathir_fan, your comment is awfully glib. It’s far, far too late to play the “oh, how could I know that the weapons would end up in the hands of the janjaweed” card. China has been accused of breaking the UN arms embargo to continue to sell arms to Sudan; selling a legal gun to someone who ends up shooting someone with it is one thing, knowingly selling a gun under the table to a convicted killer is another.
I hope those organizers and promoters of boycotts will finally get to their head that majority Chinese will not support it, but I doubt they will stop. They have a “job” to do, so to speak, and their funding depends on how much noise they make.