Brownback: Closed Beijing Games Would Be ‘A Mistake’

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) kept after China Wednesday for what he sees as government spying on hotel guests.

Brownback, on CNN, repeated his concerns that China is going to use a security system set up in hotels to spy and gather information on guests staying in Beijing during next month’s Olympics. He said that the spying system and China’s decision to censor large parts of the Internet for foreign journalists goes against their previous pledges to keep things open.

“But this is just totally outside of what they agreed to do in the Olympics,” he said. “They agreed to host an open Olympics. This is this big coming-out party for China to the world, and then they are doing something like this.”

When Brownback was asked whether he thought giving the games to Beijing is a mistake, he said, “Well, if they’re not going to monitor their agreements, I think it is. I don’t think the president should go. He think he should spend his time meeting with Darfur refugees or refugees from North Korea. China is the biggest enabler of human rights abuses around the world today for the number of countries that they block for. And I think we ought to highlight that instead of the accomplishments of China, what they’re doing against human rights.”