I can't figure out what the candidates promising, or sorta-promising, to boycott the Summer Olympics think they're achieving. On the one hand, concern for human rights violations in China could so concern you that you'd apply enormous pressure on the Chinese government till they cleaned up their act. This could mean tariffs, it could mean public statements, it could mean lots of stuff. Alternatively, you could decide that it's not worth going to bat over, and while you'll make the occasional quiet mention of human rights violations, the development of China is both a positive good and an inescapable reality, and best to just usher them into the world community and hope that leads towards change. But this Olympics idea is the worst of both worlds. It's a high profile snub that will piss off the Chinese without actually exerting any real pressure on them. Why bother?(Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Shalvas.) SNUBBING CHINA.
I can't figure out what the candidates promising, or sorta-promising, to boycott the Summer Olympics think they're achieving. On the one hand, concern for human rights violations in China could so concern you that you'd apply enormous pressure on the Chinese government till they cleaned up their act. This could mean tariffs, it could mean public statements, it could mean lots of stuff. Alternatively, you could decide that it's not worth going to bat over, and while you'll make the occasional quiet mention of human rights violations, the development of China is both a positive good and an inescapable reality, and best to just usher them into the world community and hope that leads towards change. But this Olympics idea is the worst of both worlds. It's a high profile snub that will piss off the Chinese without actually exerting any real pressure on them. Why bother?(Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Shalvas.) 
