I’ve been meaning to post this Olympic sized gaffe by NBC gymnastics commentator Al Trautwig. A little too eager there fella…

The poster titled it “Commentator slips into embarrassing stream-of-consciousness.” That’s putting it mildly.

President Bush attended church in Beijing on Sunday, worshipping with Chinese Christians and singing “Amazing Grace.” But what happened outside the church says more about the state of religion in China.

Earlier that morning, Hua Huiqi, the pastor of an illegal underground Christian church, was detained by police as he was biking to the service that Mr. Bush was to attend. His whereabouts are still unknown. Mr. Hua’s brother, who was briefly detained, said Mr. Hua only wanted to worship at the church where he was baptized.

China’s constitution allows freedom of religion, but in practice religion is tolerated only insofar as it is controlled by the state. The only legal churches are those run by the State Administration of Religious Affairs. Those who choose to attend “house” churches — roughly half of China’s Christians — face harassment or detention. That reality contrasts with the better face Beijing has put on its religious tolerance at the Olympics, where athletes have been provided with everything they might need to practice their faith.

China’s leaders are afraid of religion because they see it as a political threat. Citizens with faith and a moral compass are harder for the Communist Party to control. Mr. Bush gently rebuked China’s religious restrictions as he left the church. “God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.”

– Wall Street Journal

Just the reminder by Ellen Bork of Freedom House that as you watch the Olympics the China you see is not the China you see. (Special Freedom House report here).

The PRC’s [People's Republic of China's] leaders still control what Chinese people read and watch on television on any topic where they perceive their interests to be at stake. All publications and broadcast media are licensed by the government. Journalists are required to undergo Marxist indoctrination and can be singled out to perform self-criticism. Unsatisfactory political attitudes or behavior can lead to prosecution and surveillance. The party’s Central Propaganda Department also dictates content through texted and faxed directives telling journalists how to handle sensitive issues like the outbreak of SARS and anniversaries of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

The directives and blacklists are kept secret, perhaps to keep their targets off balance, or to maintain the façade of openness that Chinese authorities wish to present to the rest of the world. A journalist, Shi Tao, who relayed the content of such a directive to an overseas Chinese Web site, is in jail on a 10-year sentence for leaking such “state secrets.”

The Internet — through which some Chinese citizens can access overseas Web sites — has not significantly eroded control of information. The Chinese government has a formidable firewall to block sites it doesn’t want its citizenry to view. It’s manned by thousands of censors who monitor sites and recommend them for blocking. Although a persistent citizen can evade the technology that blocks foreign sites, the authorities compensate by making the system slow and cumbersome.

Self-censorship and intimidation also play a significant role in keeping the Internet safe for consumption. Many Internet companies voluntarily remove content that the authorities consider politically problematic. American companies like Google, which tailors its search engine to Chinese demands, and Yahoo, which cooperated in the investigation of the journalist Shi Tao, also perform this censorship function. The party may rely heavily on such indirect pressures to contain the Internet’s influence, but it doesn’t skimp on policing, coercion and repression.

Estimates of the number of people employed to monitor the Internet run into the tens of thousands. According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 50 Internet dissidents are in jail. Of course, none of this will be visible to a foreign visitor.

Pollution, skyscrapers and development reflect China’s rapid economic growth, not political change. There have been no significant political reforms in China since the 1980s. Meanwhile, economic growth has enabled more intense but sophisticated approach to political repression.

The decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Iraqi athletes from the Beijing Olympics is truly disgusting, summarized succintly by Michael Soussan:

If Uday Hussein was acceptable to the IOC, why is the committee up in arms about the Iraqi government’s decision to reshuffle its Olympic management team? The answer is that Iraq’s new Olympic managers have not yet been accredited by the IOC. What will it take to get them accredited? Will they have to start torturing their athletes the way Uday used to do, when they failed to perform to his liking?

The IOC, if you didn’t know, claims that Iraq awarded its national Olympic committee based on politics. This is a joke considering it had no problemo with Saddam Hussein, who not only awarded posts based on political allies, but, you know, murdered anyone who wasn’t a political ally.

Amazing. Then again, this is the same committee that bestowed further legitimacy to a country, China, that doesn’t even acknowledge the right of its own citizens to speak, assemble or practice religion freely.

Related:

Uday Hussein’s death frees Iraqi athletes

The horrors of Saddam’s ‘sadist’ son

Iraqi’s Olympic chief turns on top aide