I think the idea here is that the more trappings of freedom we can bring to their country, the more it will erode the hardline communist government. I think maybe the IOC saw it as a way to infuse free cultures into a totalitarian system - and I do think China is trying to clean up its act little at a time. I mean, they could've clamped down on Hong Kong and they've largely left it intact... they could've made an issue out of Taiwan and they're content just to rattle sabres once in a while... you have to remember that China has a very different mindset than the west. They're trying to adapt themselves to the global community but still retain their 1950's communist ideal, and over time it the government there will inevitably fail, just as the Soviets did. The best thing we can do for them is to support things like the olympics 100%, while making it known that we (the global community) take a dim view of some of their practices.

Remember also that China has been largely ignored in the latter half of the 20th century. After the Korean war, and Nixon's overtures with their government, they were largely relegated to 2nd place communist regime status while we focused all of our energy at the Soviets. Now that they're a world economic power and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, not to mention having a huge population base... and now we fear them.

What cracks me up about the whole situation is the notion that somehow the Chinese, who have a growing, burgeoning society, are some kind of great evil to be despised. Meanwhile, there are nations in the middle east who make China look like a childs' play in terms of human rights abuses, and we have to "understand" and coddle them. If we protest China, it's some great valiant righteous crusade against human rights abuses, but if you speak out against the treatment of women in persia and arabia, you're "closed-minded" and "anti-muslim".

Take a look sometime at the standard of living in China... it has been drastically improving since 1978 and continues to climb. China is the 3rd nation to independently send astronauts into space and is actively planning a moon mission. They have a burgeoning industrial economy. Instead of finding ways to demonize them into a new cold war, we should be trying to bring them into the global community.