'One World, One Regime'

Fearing protests during the games, China's authoritarian government has so tightened controls on visas and residence permits that instead of cashing in on Olympic gold, the country's tourist industry is actually reporting its worst business in years and foreign visitors to Beijing could even be fewer than last year at the same time!

While China has spent billions of dollars on giving Beijing a massive makeover, it is also doing everything possible to suck the fun (and any possible dissent) out of an event that billions around the world watch every four years.

Massive security presence, visa restrictions, Tibet off limits to journalists, a stern 57-point document issued to all spectators, entitled "Good Habit for a Good Games", which includes, among other things, the banning of all religious and political banners, the banning of all demonstrations, as well as strict warnings not to bring into the country any materials that are harmful to China's politics, economics, culture and morals.

Some of these rules are straightforward and really not up for debate: don't bring in weapons, don't disrupt the games, don't burn the flag, etc. We get it! Those rules should apply to all games and, of course, they do.

Most of the other oppressive rules however not only seriously undermine China's attempt to portray itself as a more open society capable of allowing its citizens their own voice, they loudly clash with a pledge made months ago by IOC president Jacques Rogge, who said athletes could exercise freedom of speech in China.

"Freedom of expression is something that is absolute," Rogge stated emphatically in Beijing last April. Rogge must have never left his IOC funded Beijing hotel room when he uttered that ambivalent and conveniently vague sentence! Freedom of expression may be absolute, but its application is completely relative and subjective in China. To pretend otherwise is a serious affront to our intelligence.

Is there anyone on the international scene at the moment who even believes for a moment that the Beijing Olympics' slogan "One World, One Dream" means anything to China's communist regime? They are busy uttering platitudes, while the climate for freedom of expression has seriously deteriorated over the past year. With the crackdown continuing, there are more writers in prison there now than there were seven months ago and serious restrictions are being placed on their movements and their ability to speak and publish freely.

China may think that sweeping Sudan, Darfur and Tibet under a giant state-sanctioned carpet will fool the world, but their regime is wrong.

"When the Olympic Games begin in Beijing, China will show the world its physical strength, but also its moral poverty," wrote Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media and clothing tycoon who publishes the Apple Daily newspaper.

The Chinese Communist Party's Office of Spiritual Civilization, Development and Guidance (yup, that's a real department…) may be busy creating an officially approved Olympic cheer (it combines clapping, raised thumbs, punching a fist in the air and yelling 'Go Olympics, Go China!'), but they better keep their eyes open as the rest of the world prepares to give them a collective thumbs down.