China has a lot to answer when it comes to their priorities. The country is fooling the rest of the world by glorifying its olympic success and controlling the medias access to the horrendous controversies that go on in China. And believe me there are a lot. Did you know that in China today it is illegal to kill your children but not illegal to let them die of neglect? Thats why so many little girls are left to die in horrendous ways. Did you know that China has some of the most appauling human and animal rights in the world? Where dogs are eaten and worn on clothing, and people live in a highly repressive state where expressing their own opinion can result in jail, torture and even the death penalty. 

But we aren’t really meant to know about all this, or at least thats what the Chinese government would prefer. 

Instead of spending its money on trying to help the poor and provide basic human needs to the millions of people living in squaller, China chooses to invest billions into creating a pretence that its the “perfect country.” When you consider that estimates for the cost of the Bejing olympics in 2008 are around $40 billion it is clear that China’s motives are extremely questionable. Chinas facade is shallow and fake, from telling a little girl she couldn’t be in the opening ceremony in Bejing because she wasn’t pretty enough, to attempts to stop the media from showing its appalling lack of human rights. 

As the Olympic games continue in London we see China scoop medal after medal, but it is worth remembering the true cost of that award. In China children are taken from their families and placed in “training camps” where they are forced, and I mean their parents or the children have no rights to object to this, to train everyday until they are old enough to compete. They are programmed to win gold like robots and even though they often do, what is the sacrifice? their freedom, their childhood - its all taken from them. They are not schooled and so many who don’t make the final cut for the olymipcs are then thrown back into the real world where they struggle to find jobs with no qualifications and little life experience. There are stories of harsh diets, beatings and steroid injections, all so China can convince the world its a talented country. The children are also brain washed from day one, they lose sight of reality and the Chinese government doesn’t care if the children’s mental health is at stake. It is a far cry from the lovely childhoods British athletes have had, where they were allowed to live at home, go to school, grow up and have friends. Of course China covers this up in their state controlled newspapers, instead telling people that the athletes are as happy as they can be. 

This news about the olympic camps in China though does not surprise me. There is little this country wouldn’t put its people through just so it can appear as developed and secure as its western competitors.