Mon, Mar 24, 2008 (2:05 a.m.)

Religious oppression, centuries of human rights violations and pollution-choked air and waterways are hardly the hallmarks for the successful marketing of one’s nation.

Yet all that and more have been laid bare — and analyzed, discussed and protested — as the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing approach.

Winter or summer, the international participation in and attention on the Olympic Games provide what many activists see as the perfect stage to make their causes and concerns known.

As the Associated Press noted last week, Atlanta’s 1996 Summer Games drew protests after activists deemed as anti-gay the county in which the beach volleyball event was to be conducted. Environmental concerns and Aborigine rights were debated as Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Games approached.

So it comes as no surprise that protesters are demanding sponsor boycotts and other action in connection with this year’s Beijing Olympics. This time, however, they have significantly more fuel: China’s long-standing tyrannical oppression of people in Tibet, its pathetic environmental record and domestic policies that prevent Chinese citizens from having a free press and other basic democratic and human rights.

The issue of China’s propping up the Sudanese government and that African country’s ongoing genocide in the nation’s Darfur region also have brought pressure to boycott the Summer Games. Acclaimed director Steven Spielberg withdrew as the event’s artistic adviser for the Summer Games after activists, including actress Mia Farrow, urged him to do so.

Still, it would be shortsighted to ask the thousands of athletes who have devoted their lives to their sport to abandon the Beijing Games because of China’s stunningly poor human rights and environmental records. Staying home wouldn’t necessarily change those practices.

But keeping the spotlight on China and its misguided policies just might.

So we say go ahead and protest. Circulate the Internet petitions, issue the policy report cards and make noise. The Summer Olympic Games have turned the world’s eyes toward China and its oppressive government, which needs to be further exposed.