"We need to respect the principles of the Olympics and the Olympic charter," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. "That is, we shouldn't politicize the Olympic games."

Well, it's too late for that.

The recent crackdown on rioting in Tibet has cast a long shadow over the 2008 Summer Games and China's ambition to use them to polish its image on the world stage.

China's invasion of Tibet in 1951 and subsequent iron-fisted rule of the so-called "autonomous region" laid the foundation for the freedom protests now giving Beijing a public-relations headache.

"China controls Tibet in fact as a colony," says East-West Center fellow Chris McNally on the center's Web site. "It is not an autonomous region."

The Tibetan crackdown clearly demonstrates that China, its promises to the International Olympic Committee notwithstanding, has little intention of improving its human rights record or relaxing its tight grip on free speech, the press and public dissent.

Instead, China responded to its critics with depressing predictability: It blamed the Dalai Lama and the "Dalai clique" for fomenting violence; it accused the foreign media of biased reporting while barring it from Tibet; it blocked access to Web sites with video of the rioting in Tibet and elsewhere.

But China's growing economic power shouldn't shield it from pressure to reform.

While most countries are stepping gingerly, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Western countries have rightly — if rather weakly — called on Beijing to exercise restraint, negotiate with the Dalai Lama to calm the situation, and increase religious tolerance and freedom in Tibet.

Because on June 20-21, the Olympic torch is scheduled to pass through Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. When it does, will it symbolize the Olympian ideals of peace and human dignity, or merely mock them?