China Yanks Visa of Olympic Gold Medalist Over Darfur Activism

Joey Cheek, who won a gold medal for speed skating at the Torino Olympics two years ago found out that China revoked his visa to attend the Beijing games just two days before the games were scheduled to open.

Olympic gold medalist and outspoken Darfur activist Joey Cheek has had his visa revoked by the Chinese embassy, hours before the speedskating champion was set to fly to China. And he wasn't even planning on wearing a mask when he got there.

Chinese officials don't need a reason to revoke anyone's visa but, in their eyes, they had plenty of reasons to snatch Cheek's. He is the founder of Team Darfur, a group of 70 athletes whose goal it is to raise global awareness of the human-rights violations taking part in the Darfur region of Sudan. China's military, economic and diplomatic ties to Sudan have been well-publicized in the lead-up to the Games.

China is doing its best to silence debate about its odious positions on humanitarian crises around the world and its support for regimes like Sudan that have engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide. (HT: 2blue4u at LGF)

So, what was Cheek proposing China do? Honor the Olympic truce, a concept that dates back to ancient times. China responded by yanking his visa.

Yet, what this has done is actually raise Cheek's profile and that of his organization because the Chinese have actually drawn attention to their ongoing policies to silence criticism of the regime. It once again reinforces that the Chinese government has no interest in free speech.

The White House has protested the Chinese actions, but President Bush will still go ahead with attending the opening ceremonies. He should have sent someone else in his stead, rather than lend the prestige of the President of the United States to the regime in Beijing.