Why China's Oppression Matters.

I worked for many years with China in previous jobs. I became friends with a man who was a porter in our Hong Kong office I will call him mister Shen. Mr Shen was a lovely man who introduced me to the joys of noodle soup and Chinese tailors- I liked him very much.

We became friends because of the fact that we are both Catholics. He invited me to a Rosary in the city of Shenzen where he lived with his wife and daughter.

After a few years I stopped working in China and I called a friend to see how Mr Shen was doing and I was told he had been taken into "Custody". He was arrested for having an unauthorized Rosary in his apartment and for being loyal to the Pope.

China is the fastest growing Power in the world. It is consuming resources the way the US did in the 19th century. We should applaud the new Chinese economy and we should embrace the emergence of China- but we need to reject their system of governance because that system is evil.

The Chinese government is oppressing and destroying the culture of Tibet and those people are rioting against this oppression. Thousands of Chinese are in prison for things as simple as writing poetry or attending Rosaries. Millions of Chinese are worked to death producing export products and they have no right to redress or organized labor.

To pretend that China is just another dictatorship is folly. China is the largest owner of American treasury bills. China is supporting oppressive regimes around the world. Yet the world is going to Beijing for the Olympics is this the story we want told? That the world played sports while this nation continues to oppress its own people and supporting regimes that oppress.

In the end we need to ask ourselves do our values matter? Or is it all about the money?? I say boycott the Beijing Games until Tibet is free and people are free to pray the Rosary in their living room without molestation.