…and it’s time to do something about it.

I’ve been collecting online items about China for years, both positive and negative. And until now, I’ve managed to keep my big mouth shut on this topic. But now things have gone too far.

No, that’s not a headline from the popular Onion news satire website, although it sounds like one. That’s today’s news from the London Times. And, for anyone who’s spent more than 30 seconds studying the history of Tibet, that’s like calling Abraham Lincoln a slaveowner or Hitler a humanitarian. It’s totally insane, but unfortunately that’s what the world has come to expect from the Chinese government. And unfortunately 1,300,000,000 people live under this sick regime.

Let’s take a look at some stories from all over the world about the current Tibet crisis. I’m only posting headlines and links because otherwise we could be here all day:

• China Blasts Dalai Lama, Pelosi on Tibet
• China Lashes Out at Crackdown Critics
• Tibetans appeal for world’s help, but they’re resigned to getting little
• China’s PR Machine Cranks Up Role of Dalai Lama
• Dalai Lama and his allies are out to destroy Olympics, says China

OK, there was rioting in Tibet, about 50 years after being savagely attacked by the Chinese and having their independence and much of their culture taken away. Frankly, one can hardly blame the Tibetans for losing control of themselves every once in awhile. And the Chinese government knows that the Dalai Lama is one of the most peaceful people on the planet, which is exactly why they accuse him of being behind the violence. In actual fact, needless to say, he’s denounced the riots in Tibet, while the Chinese government has claimed that all the people killed were Chinese, conveniently ignoring the far greater number of Tibetans killed by Chinese troops and police.

But that last headline reveals the real fear of the Chinese government: that the upcoming Olympics — a chance for China to “show off” for the world — will somehow be disrupted. They know it would be a real loss of China’s prestige in the world if something like that happened. So let’s make sure it does!

The Chinese government is Communist and displays all the classic paranoia and control of news and people that was evident in the Soviet Union and other examples of the “workers’ paradise”, such as Cuba. And yet China has become an economic powerhouse in the last few decades precisely because they opened themselves up to foreign trade. But they have failed their own people as well as the rest of the world. Let’s look at some of the things they have managed to accomplish while preparing for this Summer Olympics:

• China hushes up Olympic deaths — China has systematically covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, and perhaps many more, in a rush to construct the futuristic ”bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympic Games.
• State Department warns American spectators at Olympics not to expect privacy — The State Department is advising Americans planning to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing to take care and be mindful that they could be under surveillance.
• Un-bear-able: China’s cruel animal Olympics reach new heights — A black bear perches precariously on a scooter and is forced to drive a circus performer across a tightrope. This shocking image is just the latest picture to emerge from the barbaric Animal Olympic Games in China, a country with a shameful animal rights record.
• Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijing’s shocking death camp for cats

In short, no life is safe in China while the Chinese government attempts to “put on a happy face” for the world.

But wait, there’s more.

The Chinese government not only destroys the lives of its own people, but deliberately or negligently allows the lives of people all over the world to be taken or threatened as well:

• Man beaten to death in China for taking pictures — Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China’s Xinhua news agency reports.
• Pollution kills 750,000 in China every year — The figures, almost twice previous estimates, were calculated using a new statistical model. But they have been suppressed until now because the government feared they would cause social unrest, according to reports.
• Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China — As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein. (NY Times, April 30, 2007)
• Claims that China paid Bin Laden to see cruise missiles — China paid Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded American cruise missiles left over from the US attack on his bases three years ago, a senior alleged al-Qaida agent in Europe has claimed. The alleged agent’s account is contained in the transcript of a secretly taped conversation between supporters of Osama bin Laden obtained by the Guardian. (The Guardian, October 20, 2001)
• Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China — Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday that the product appeared to have originated in China. (NY Times, May 19, 2007)
• Chinese kill baby to enforce birth rule — China has been shaken by one of the most horrifying cases of official infanticide in recent memory after family planners drowned a healthy baby in front of its parents. (The Times, August 24, 2000)
• China Link Suspected in Lab Hacking — A cyber attack reported last week by one of the federal government’s nuclear weapons laboratories may have originated in China, according to a confidential memorandum distributed Wednesday to public and private security officials by the Department of Homeland Security.
• China threatens to nuke America — A recently-declassified Chinese military document states communist China will first conduct a “Vietnam”-like conventional war against American forces, and then eventually fight a nuclear war against the U.S. homeland. The document, recently translated by an American intelligence agency, was sent by the Chinese army central command to all the regional garrisons and army corps headquarters in China.
• China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution — “Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing their views or other information on the Internet or for accessing certain websites are prisoners of conscience,” Amnesty International said. “They should be released immediately and unconditionally”.
• Virus from China the gift that keeps on giving — An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games – and its designers might have larger targets in mind.

Enough already. I hope by now you get the picture. Cheap Chinese goods for the world are no bargain when they support death and repression like this. Let’s all try to cut down on our purchase of Chinese-made items, boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics, and let the Chinese government know that “business as usual” is over.