When Beijing was awarded the Olympic Games for 2008, it was heralded as a grand coming out opportunity of sorts for the world's most populous country.

It would be 17 days in August when the reemergence of China would be on global display through sports. When its progress as a modern nation could be showcased on the biggest stage and celebrated. What the 1964 Games did for Japan and the '88 Olympics did for South Korea, China is counting on these games to do for a land that would like to reestablish itself as the Middle Kingdom.

Sadly, as the 29th Summer Olympiad draws closer, the China the world is seeing through camera lenses and the internet is not something to admire or celebrate. It has been as repressive and brutal as ever.

We see glimpses of it not only in the mounting death toll in Tibet and crackdowns in China but in the genocide that has been aided in Darfur. As the 18th anniversary of the bloody massacre at Tiananmen Square rolls around, we are reminded that, for all its progress in other areas, not enough has changed in terms of human rights with China.

They are actions hardly suiting the Olympic ideal much less consistent with the "One world, one dream" slogan projected for this Olympiad.

As reprehensible as China's actions have been, the International Olympic Committee that awarded it the Games has been a disappointing, silent witness to it all.

The IOC granted Beijing the games on China's promise to operate a free and open Olympiad. Instead, China has announced there will be no live telecasts from Tiananmen Square lest some daredevil protesters get airtime. Moreover, official snooping will be at unprecedented levels that even has the U.S. State Department alerting travelers.

When Beijing was granted the Games, the evaluation commission noted: "The overall presence of strong governmental control and support is healthy." So far it has been anything but.

You would have hoped that the IOC and its president, Jacques Rogge, would lean on China's leadership, reminding it of the pledges made seven years ago in Moscow when the Games were awarded. If they have, it has come in a whisper and without effect. Rogge is employing what he terms "silent diplomacy." Silent, indeed. Also, to this point, ineffectual.

The hope was that, after the Cold War boycotts took some of the luster off the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics that governmental protests were a thing of the past. The wish is that the Games can be left to the athletes, not the politicians. But the more that China insists on its hard, uncompromising line, the more the option is gaining credence. Already French President Nicolas Sarkozy has held out the possibility of boycotting the opening ceremonies Aug. 8 and there have been calls for President Bush to consider the same.

So intent upon presenting a good face to the world with these Olympics is China that its scientists have looked into ways to halt rains in Beijing, lest the opening ceremonies or marquee events be disrupted. Unfortunately, it shows signs of planning to go to the same master control lengths to quell dissent and human rights.

For all the comparisons it might like to draw to the Tokyo or Seoul Olympiads with its hometurf Games, at the moment Beijing is running more toward the lines of the 1936 Nazi Olympiad in Berlin.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.