Let the Games begin!!

There's been speculation about how much it's costing China to host the Olympic Games, with estimates ranging from US $43bn. The last time I checked, China wasn't embroiled in a 5 year old war which has cost US $3 trillion, according to Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize winner in Economics.

Those countries highlighting China's human rights record should seek to remove the log in their own eyes. How is it possible for a mother of 3 children, with a doctorate from MIT to disappear in Karachi, Pakistan 5 years ago and then reemerge at courthouse in New York to face charges of shooting at US officials - if the Justice Department was looking for a more plausible cover story, couldn't they have hired the writers of 24?! So, after arresting OBL's driver in 2002 and transferring him to the Guantanámo Bay gulag, he was found guilty of associating with Al-Qaeda, in a dubious US military trial, and sentenced to 66 months. Given the time he has already spent in captivity, he should be free in 5 months time, but the US administration have indicated that that won't be the case. France has been accused of complicity in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, BAE with the tacit approval of the British government continues to sell arms to that beacon of democracy that is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and even manages to get the British government to pull an SFO investigation into the biggest BAE arms deal to the Kingdom after it emerged that Prince Bandar (Saudi fixer-in-chief) had been paid US $1bn over a period of 10 years. I could go on, but I won't.

China has recently overtaken the US to become the country with the largest number of internet users. She has also bought up a large amount of US debt which has made certain members of the US administration uneasy. Additionally, China has made significant inroads in Africa bringing their infrastructure expertise in exchange for Africa's natural resources. By not asking too many questions about human rights and democracy, China, has for the most part, been welcomed on the African continent, but China's African adventure has not gone down well with Africa's former colonial masters. Admittedly China's support of Sudan and Zimbabwe is questionable, but then so is the US' unstinting support for Israel.

Wishing China a successful XXIX Olympiad.

Jiayou Zhongguo!!