The Nobel laureates’ letter was followed by a call by Mia Farrow and other human rights activists to corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics to demand that China account for its support in Sudan or face a series of protests and consumer boycotts in the lead-up to this year’s Summer Games. While warning China that the Darfur crisis could tarnish the Olympic ideal, they made a direct appeal for Beijing to intervene to stop the killing in Sudan. Then Stephen Spielberg resigned as artistic director for the Olympics to protest China not having done enough to pressure Sudan over the conflict.

Few corporate sponsors are listening. U.S. President George W. Bush has gone on the record saying he would go to the Olympics in August. China blamed activists for “ulterior motives” to spoil the Games, and Sudan accused Spielberg of making a wrong decision based on “wrong information.” But despite the apparent indifference to the appeals in Beijing, Washington and Khartoum, the signs are that the pressure on China and those companies and individuals associated with the Olympics won’t let up between now and August.

The pressure, however, is not going to force China to buckle under. Beijing rightly claims politics should not interfere with sports, and warns against linking the Darfur issue with the Olympics, which China is going all out to make a great success. This year’s Summer Olympics are designed to be China’s international “coming out” ceremony. China certainly does not need economic favors from the international community. It is growing at such a rate that it is on course to surpass the United States to become the world’s largest economy by the middle of this century.

On the other hand, China knows full well that the Beijing Olympics won’t be boycotted. The United States did not boycott the Olympics in Berlin in 1940. President Jimmy Carter ordered a U.S. boycott of the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980 in protest against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, but the American absence did not prove effective. And President Bush, who said he views the Olympics as “a sporting event,” has ruled out an official boycott. Russia certainly does not want to boycott the Beijing Games. Nor will Japan or other Western countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy.

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