Should world leaders attend the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony?

The Beijiang Olympics

Is purely a political game of rallying nationalisms and it was definately no compromise at all about whatsoever respects of her spirits. China wasnt the first one doing that and thats why we dont need to feel sad about complaint. Power is everything thats Chinese philosophy and dont be surprised!

Darfur's fate was sealed

If someone believe the Darfur civil war will comes to an end in order to force China to do something, that was naive..Sudan is the core interests of China, the Chinese government wont give a mere care about Steven Spielburg's withdrawn as a protests about her handling. Oil is everything and that was nowhere to compromise. If the western world can do something over PRC they have already done. The uncooperation of refuse to attend the Olympic was putting their commercial interests in harms way. The western crporations has warned their governments very clearly if their intersests in China was hurt due to some meaningless issue like Tibet,Darfur! What else does western leaders can do after the Olympics?Refuse to Chian to talk trades with us?

What kind of strong messages does the western world can do to PRC?

Tibet is China soil, which country dared to challenge this...sanctioning China by cancelling China's MFN? How many years the US congress has been trying to do? Chinese troops over there, Chinese settlers over ther, the tibetans has nothing to choose but accepting the fate of absorbtions. Complain to United Nations that China occupied the country...? Does the world knows how many third world countries will support China?

Tibet was no more....it was just a myth that fabricated by the western world! And this is not a military soultions can slove. China dont need to feel sad about some noises which against her rule in Tibet...this is not afghanistan under soviets because no western countries will risking their economic intersests being harmed because of a fantasy.

I do not think that it is a good idea for the world leaders to attend the ceremony in Beijing. The Chinese government is not consistent to deal with some domestic issues and international issues. We have to send some more strong signal for the Chinese government to comply with the international norms, in particular including human rights and environmental protections. In addition, the Chinese government must deal with the Tibet issue in favor of the Tibetan independence.

i would really love to see no any leader from a free world going there because the chinese did make really clear that this game is for the PRC showing off the world how arrogant she is.

a game that big have everything to do with politic.

for a world leader to not be there to support their countrys athletes in a simple opening ceremony is nothing short of poor form.. deal with China after.. These are the games after all, not a political arena to flap your arms..

Blue Tiger, I was pondering the logic ;o)

kow tow!

Did I say "offend"? I meant "attend".....

Darfur was definately not China's problems because Sudan is a state instead of a province of China how can China intervene the domestic politics over there. If it was the reason that china 's awesome investment and oil trading with sudan that China ha san obligations to intervene, that doesnt make sense at all at least in Chinese 's understanding it was unsound and irrelevant, trade is trade, politics is politics...who knows the conspiracy of blowing up the Darfur crisis ios for what actually? Take an analogy, america bought huge oil from Saudi arabia, americans has an obligations to urge the saudis to let missionaries to preach Christianity in side the saudi kingdom. And EU also has a morale obligations to urge the saudis to abolish beheading as a state penalty!

The Olympic was an international trading market where all the coporations using the events to promote their business. If there was someone believes a boycott of Beijiang Olympics was a sure naive thinking because that means lost of a lot business. Just like that Sarkozy he has hinted many times he will boycott the ceremony but finally he has got to show up for the sake of French's bidding of China's nuclear power stations and the Chinese govt has warned him any further troubles about meeting Dali will resulted with no contracts signing! The Chinese govt has no changing over harsh measures over the Dali Lamma's clique but the world must joy together with China's political campaign, this is the rule of politics that state interests came first!

dont really see why it wouldn't hurt to join since the olympics is a world event.

3rd option - don't care

I don’t think anybody should be going to these games, they should never have been given to China in the first place. And for those that believe sports & politics should be separate just keep in mind the games were given to China for political reasons, so they were never separate to begin with.

Zurg, free ticket? No problem, a one way ticket though.

But, of course, world leaders WILL offend so as to appease the Red Chinese, in the same way that children will often give the crybaby his/her way so that s/he will stop crying. Red China hasa horrible human rights grade, even after all the glorious promises she made prior to abing awarded the `08 Games, Beijing still has a big air pollution problem, and Red China still has her hands blood-covered with regards to her influence with Darfur in Sudan.

It may not mean much, but this little black duck ain't watching these olympics this year, nor buying from companies that support or partner with them....

Even though we, or they have differences, every Leader will be proud for the effort and honor of their Athletes from their country.

They should attend. I know, I would.

Free ticket for me anyone??

irishosaru you are right on the mark. I wish world leaders would do something concrete in dealing with China which means trade. Skipping the opening ceremony is indeed a cheap way to score political points.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/chinasudandarfurmilitarytradeunembargobritain could hot link it

check this out http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/chinasudandarfurmilitarytradeunembargobritain then see if you think its a good idea to support this dictatorship

I think they should. It's summertime! Time to relax!

Too bad there's no "I don't really care" option to vote for...

"If Bush goes to the ceremony then he's got his priorities wrong"

I guess Sarkozy, Fukuda, Rudd, Lee Myung-bak of Korea, Balkenende of the Netherlands and other world leaders have got their priorities wrong then.

I agree with Farmboy. If Bush goes to the ceremony then he's got his priorities wrong.

Well said irishosaru. I agree that the majority should attend the opening ceremony, and then take the next flight home asap.

I voted "yes", but I should clarify.

For the most part, the issue of whether political leaders would attend or not is about the human rights situation in China, and China's actions in Tibet.

If you are the leader that enjoys trade with China, then you should attend. Any leader not attending (and publicising that fact) is trying to score cheap political points at home by saying "Look, I didn't go to the opening ceremony, because like you, I care about the human rights situation there, and I'm concerned about the Tibet situation", while still supporting China by trading millions, or maybe billions of dollars with China.

If your distaste at what China is doing extends to the point that your country doesn't trade with China, and therefore doesn't offer financial support for the current regime, then you have a principled reason for not attending.