…China. 

For many, the forthcoming Beijing Olympics is an exciting affair. The heady mix of international competitive sports, the show-casing of one of China’s leading cities, and the sheer financial bonanza that will take place makes the Olympics a pretty important event.

Which is why the Chinese government is taking no hostages in ensuring things move smoothly.

Well, I say “taking no hostages” in the metaphorical sense of the word, for in the literal sense, it is taking quite a few individuals hostage, both in jail and under house arrest.

The most prominent case is that of Hu Jia, his wife Zeng Jinyan, and their two-month-old daughter, Qianci, the former duo of whom are human rights advocates who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex of Bo Bo Freedom City.

Hu and Zeng are no ordinary human rights advocates, however. They have, to date, excelled in vociferously shaking the Chinese government to the point that Hu, 34, has been detained under the charge of “subverting state power”, while Zeng and Qianci remain under house arrest with telephone and Internet connections to the apartment severed.

With Qianci being hailed as the youngest political prisoner in China, the move casts a substantial pall over the government’s endeavours to portray China as a just and humane country in the run-up to the sporting event.

Indeed, for fellow human rights advocates and Chinese dissidents, Hu’s detention is the most telling example of the burgeoning crackdown on dissent as Beijing prepares to play host in August.

In recent months, several dissidents have been jailed, including a former factory worker in northeastern China who collected 10,000 signatures after posting an online petition titled “We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics.”

As the physical signs of progress forge ahead – stadiums, roads, and subway lines are under completion – less visible, yet nevertheless omnipotent, changes are taking place as the authorities announced that only state-sanctioned companies would be allowed to broadcast video and audio files on the Internet.

In addition, China has also employed the ruse of obliterating Internet pornography and “unhealthy” content, as a tool for arresting online dissidents.

This is particularly visible in figures gathered by Reporters Without Borders, who reveal that 51 online dissidents have been jailed — more than in any other country — while last year more than 2,500 websites were blocked.

Brazenly fearless, Hu and Zeng have forged on in a uniquely fastidious manner, calling upon the highest-exposure mediums possible: the trusty blogosphere and YouTube.

As Hu used his own website to post updates about other dissidents or peasant protests, and to describe his semi-regular encounters with the police and state security officers assigned to monitor him, Zeng blogged about life under detention.

Most potent however, is Hu’s video documentary, Prisoner in Freedom City.

A seven part serial, Prisoner in Freedom City makes for compelling, yet disturbing viewing. Yet while the antics of the belligerent secret police stationed outside their home make for chilling viewing, one cannot but help cheer Hu for his cojones and the manner in which he reveals the authorities to be utter chumps.

And it does not stop at YouTube: in November last year Hu also took part, via webcam, in an E.U. parliamentary hearing in Brussels about human rights, in which he expounded that China had failed to meet its Olympic promise of improving human rights.

With increasing calls for his release emanating from both the blogosphere and human rights organisations, Hu’s ardour remains evident: “If I don’t shed blood for the country, who will? If I don’t go to hell, who will?”

The tragic irony is that the Olympic maxim seems to corroborate the struggle of Hu and his fellow human rights advocates, more than the event that China is striving so hard towards:

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

The Olympics is ultimately about unity. The sooner China realises that it will not win esteem through shiny stadiums and smooth tarmac, but rather through the impeccable application of human rights, the greater success the Beijing Olympics will be.

Otherwise, it will be but an empty vessel, devoid of the true spirit of the international sporting event.