Patriotic banners banned from China Olympics

By Michelle Malkin  •  July 15, 2008 08:52 PM

From Australia’s The Age newspaper comes word that China is banning patriotic banners and signs during the Olympic games next month. The move is designed to stamp out pro-Tibet displays in the stadiums:

AUSTRALIAN fans will be forbidden from waving banners supporting their Olympic heroes at the Beijing Games.

In yet another curb on personal freedoms for next month’s Olympics, Games chiefs have banned banners and posters from all competition venues.

The new rule, contained in an official spectator guide book, is aimed at stopping pro-Tibet demonstrators embarrassing China by unfurling placards at events during the the Games.

However, Games organisers have extended the ban to include material supporting national teams.

The book, published by Olympic organisers and available to ticket holders, said banners backing individuals and teams were “tendentious (and) violate the fairness principle of an Olympic event”, state media reported.

So, banners with messages such as, “Go Tomkins”, “Aussie Aussie Aussie” or even “Stephanie Will You Marry Me?” will be prohibited under the new edict…

…Also banned from stadiums are material supporting human rights, religion, politics, animal rights and the environment.

No word on whether the ban covers Che t-shirts.

Mao handbags, presumably, will get the green light.

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  1. #376792
    On July 15th, 2008 at 8:56 pm, zorro said:

    I guess a showing of John Wayne’s “Blood Alley” is out of the question as well.

  2. #376793
    On July 15th, 2008 at 8:56 pm, singlemalt_18 said:

    Are they going to sing National Anthems?

  3. #376799
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:04 pm, Jeddite said:

    Oh China, you misunderstood utopia you.

  4. #376804
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:09 pm, Blind_Mule said:

    Your going to tell me they would ban this and this no way!

  5. #376805
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:09 pm, Goldwater Knight said:

    Anyone caught showng patriotic banners will be arrested, put on your knees, then shot through the back of the neck. Then your organs will be harvested and sold to a pickwickian from Chicago. Have a nice time at the games.

  6. #376806
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:10 pm, Blind_Mule said:
  7. #376807
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:11 pm, Boomer said:

    Won’t matter to our household we won’t be watching the Olympics this year we have had our fill of Chinese products. It sounds like they don’t want any countries pride or nationalism to interfere with the glorification of their fascist oppressive regime.

  8. #376808
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:12 pm, normsrevenge said:

    Huh?
    what?

    click

  9. #376809
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:12 pm, Blind_Mule said:

    They could broadcast it all on this

  10. #376810
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:17 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    I’m sure if you managed a banner, Google would happily ban the video of your arrest from YouTube. Money before freedom.

  11. #376811
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:17 pm, Die Hippie, Die said:

    However, Games organisers have extended the ban to include material supporting national teams.

    The book, published by Olympic organisers and available to ticket holders, said banners backing individuals and teams were “tendentious (and) violate the fairness principle of an Olympic event”, state media reported.

    It’s a liberal’s wet dream.

  12. #376814
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm, Blind_Mule said:

    I guess the world get’s to learn what socialism really is but will they learn anything from it, not a chance.

  13. #376816
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:22 pm, Tennessee Dave said:

    I wonder if the host country will play by it’s own rules……..somehow, I doubt it.

  14. #376817
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    It would be interesting to win an event, step on the podium and pull on a Aung San Suu Kyi T-Shirt and see what happened…

  15. #376818
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pm, Mixer14 said:

    AH Yes – The Olympics in Beijing !!!

    That bastion of personal freedom and brotherhood. The location selected by the impartial omniprecent ‘true light of the world’ Olympic Commitee.

    Now I know what sports would look like if the UN ran them.

  16. #376821
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:25 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    Now I know what sports would look like if the UN ran them.

    Well, except for the rapes in the stands by “blue helmets”…

  17. #376827
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm, docflash said:

    Guess I won’t be watching,,think I will miss anything?

  18. #376832
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm, drivingjack said:

    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm, docflash said:

    Guess I won’t be watching,,think I will miss anything?

    Doubt it.

  19. #376833
    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:47 pm, diaphanous said:

    I think it’s odd that the free world would choose china to be the holder of olympics. But then again, the olympics are no longer true so perhaps they deserve each other.

  20. #376858
    On July 15th, 2008 at 10:05 pm, JHSII said:

    Olympics 1936. Berlin.
    Olympics 1940. Tokyo.
    Olympics 2008. Bejing.

    Some 70 years later, no real change (although I did notice that the IOC cancelled the 1940 Olympics because of the Japanese invasion of China)

    Who will be the 2008 Jesse Owens??

  21. #376921
    On July 15th, 2008 at 11:17 pm, Goldwater Knight said:

    What’s the point of watching the Olympics. USA will get reign supreme like they always do.

  22. #376932
    On July 15th, 2008 at 11:43 pm, meatpieandtatters said:

    Salute or die, comrade.

  23. #376949
    On July 16th, 2008 at 12:25 am, Christian Soldier said:

    Remember the rider who rode a victory lap around the jumping field proudly carrying the Star Spangled Banner?
    Wasn’t it Micheal Matz who went on to become Barbaro’s trainer?

    I wonder if we have an athlete with the same tenacity.

  24. #376952
    On July 16th, 2008 at 12:27 am, Christian Soldier said:

    PS # 20 JHSH–Thank you for the list-very revealing.

  25. #376959
    On July 16th, 2008 at 12:38 am, mattm said:

    I never planned on watching the Olympics this year any way.

  26. #376963
    On July 16th, 2008 at 12:50 am, DesertLover said:

    I have not watched the Olympics since they took the contract away from ABC, where I used to get up all hours of the night to watch live broadcasts of the USA teams competing.

    Now that it is on NBC everything is taped so they can show it in prime time on the east coast and to H*** with the rest of the country. They spend more time touting their own programming and coming up with BS features than showing the athletes and competitions.

    NBC can keep their pseudo-coverage.

  27. #376968
    On July 16th, 2008 at 1:22 am, ProtestShooter said:

    If there’s no curling it’s not the real Olympics anyway.

  28. #377014
    On July 16th, 2008 at 6:13 am, sfcmac said:

    If you grant the privilege of holding the olympics to a totalitarian regime, the ‘rules’ they make should not surprise anyone.

  29. #377053
    On July 16th, 2008 at 8:04 am, Brian72 said:

    NBC will spend much more time promoting “The Rise of the Eastern Dragon”, implying that America is going to be supplanted by China as the world’s top superpower. This will be presented as a good development. After all, China’s human rights and personal freedom policies need a little tweaking, but THEY HAVE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE!

  30. #377079
    On July 16th, 2008 at 8:43 am, abstractmind said:

    Honestly, I’m not even going to watch. This whole affair has been one giant trainwreck that I can honestly say I can pry myself away from watching this time.

  31. #377088
    On July 16th, 2008 at 8:51 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    So what? Why would any honest person go to that fascist, murdering country anyway? The athlets fine, that is what they do and they worked hard for it.

    Perhaps the People’s Republic can have a re-enactment of Tienamin Square for old times sake.

  32. #377239
    On July 16th, 2008 at 11:02 am, Tennyson said:

    I guess the reasoning behind granting them the Olympics was to encourage them to join the modern nations on the world stage – sort of a carrot, a politically-neutral opportunity for them to begin moving away from their totalitarian past.

    The Chinese have responded by totally blowing the opportunity. They have no one to blame but themselves when this turns out to be the most-ignored Olympics ever.

  33. #377303
    On July 16th, 2008 at 11:37 am, supersean said:

    This is just another reason to tune out the Olympics. IMHO the Olympics are no longer a sporting event… it is now a challenge to see which country has the better drugs that are undetectable.

  34. #377305
    On July 16th, 2008 at 11:37 am, hawkeye54 said:

    On July 16th, 2008 at 8:43 am, abstractmind said:
    Honestly, I’m not even going to watch. This whole affair has been one giant trainwreck that I can honestly say I can pry myself away from watching this time.

    I stopped watching the Olympics years ago as I grew weary of watching just snippets of some events wedged between commercials and the personal stories of the prominent athletes. Rarely did I get to see an entire live event, often just prerecorded highlights and only usually when a USA team or athlete was competing in the event.

    And just to continue to keep me from watching the Beijing games are the stories of US citizen athletes actually competing as members of OTHER nations’ teams regardless of any ancenstral ties.

  35. #377329
    On July 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am, HeatherRadish said:

    but THEY HAVE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE!

    Including free abortions if you’re audacious enough to get pregnant a second time…lovely society. If only we Christofacsist godbag wingers weren’t impeding progress here in the States… :-D

    And yeah, NBC’s sappy, melodramatic, sports-free coverage (pandering to the females 25-50 sports-hating demo) means I haven’t watched an Olympics since 1996.

    But I’ll be reading about it, and I’m wondering if any of the athletes are starting to worry about their personal safety–I know a lot of them have opted to live/train thousands of miles away in other countries–and what kind of plans the State Department has for getting them out when the tanks start rolling.

  36. #377383
    On July 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pm, Southpaw said:

    On July 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm, docflash said:
    Guess I won’t be watching,,think I will miss anything?

    I don’t see anything about banning flags. I’ll be watching to see Old Glory waving in the heart of Communist China.

    I can understand people not wanting to watch because of the NBC/China (gag) love-fest. The main reason I’ll be watching is to support and cheer for the athletes that have worked so hard their entire lives to get to this event.

  37. #377530
    On July 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm, rambler said:

    Has anyone bought any tickets? Empty seats don’t wave banners.

  38. #377655
    On July 16th, 2008 at 3:00 pm, GJCorby said:

    The ban against material supporting national teams extends to all nations with the exception of the Chinese national team I’m sure.

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