Pot kettle black?

I won’t lie to you, I was really starting to get worried.

I was starting to believe that this whole Olympic season would go by, and China’s sometimes questionable, sometimes horrible policies concerning its own citizens would go overlooked by the vast majority of people covering or participating in the Games, in some misguided attempt at respect for the host country or, even worse, monetary gain. After all, as Michael Jordan once said, “Republicans wear sneakers, too.”

Something of the sort caught my eye Tuesday evening, when ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption ran a story about the U.S. cycling team wearing face masks upon arrival in Beijing to protect against the toxic air in the city. One of the show’s commentators, J.A. Adande, claimed that it was “disrespectful” to complain about the city’s air, comparing it to holding your nose at a host’s dinner table.

Of course, my neighbors’ food never killed anyone, but that’s beside the point. If we can’t even talk about Beijing’s air quality – which is directly relevant to the Games – how will we be allowed to notice the roving execution vans, made to administer lethal injections to prisoners?

However, Wednesday morning my worries were proven baseless, and by a very ironic source. I discovered that in the grand finale to his big trip across Asia, President Bush will speak out against the restrictions placed on free speech by China’s government, especially the increased security in the lead-up to the Olympics.

“America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists,” Bush will say. “We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labor rights – not to antagonize China’s leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential.”

First of all, I have to give credit where it is due. President Bush is doing his job, for once. Without military force or threats, he’s using the bully pulpit to try to right a wrong in another country. And judging by what I’ve seen from the speech so far, it looks like he’ll be doing it in a relatively eloquent fashion.

I’ve thought for a while that the international community is booting a real opportunity with the Olympics taking place in China. No country wants to look bad when they’re in the spotlight, which explains in part why China’s thrown so many of its dissidents and protesters into prison. They’re doing the governmental equivalent of cleaning their room by shoving everything in the closet. We, and the rest of the world, ought to be using this time to pressure China into treating their citizens like humans.

But it’s a little odd to hear Bush talking about human rights. We have a dirty history in recent years, what with illegal wiretapping, secret torture prisons and mercenary armies. The United States is nowhere near as bad as China, because I’m pretty sure that I won’t be thrown in prison for writing this. But as we take China to task, we should look in the mirror a bit, as well.