Isabel Hilton, the editor of Chinadialogue.net writes on the Guardian:
When China signed up for the Olympics, it promised to improve human rights and press freedom, as well as to clean up the air and provide impeccable organisation. There have been heroic efforts on air quality, and nobody doubts the logistics or the shining new venues. But on human rights Beijing has fallen back on repression and has thrown away the chance to argue, with justice, that China has made considerable progress in building a legal state, in personal freedoms and in creating prosperity. Now those achievements have been sidelined by a torch that cannot venture on to the streets without an armed escort.
There is still a choice to be made, and a change of policy is by far the best decision. So far, Beijing has reached for the tattered flag of nationalism. The official story blames China’s enemies; that line may convince many – even most – Chinese, but if the end of the story is to force 1.3 billion people back into a position of antagonism towards the outside world, when the strategy for the past 15 years has been to open up, what will have been gained?
