China Environmental Law

It would be hard to imagine a more sanctimonious organization than the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  China has played the IOC like a fiddle, yet the IOC claims, with an apparent straight face, that its “quiet diplomacy” has extracted significant concessions from China.  Let me be clear, I think the entire concept of the Olympics needs to be reevaluated and a more sustainable version developed.  I also find the notion that the Olympics should be used to drive political changes in the host country absurd.  A country should be “politically” qualified at the time of its selection to host the games.  A band of sports dilettantes should not be directing political reform in sovereign nations.

We have what we have, however, and the real purpose of this post is to note that in a recent interview with AFP, the head of the IOC, Jacques Rogge claimed that  ”The International Olympic Committee (IOC) persuaded China to pass new laws on sensitive rights and environment issues ahead of the Beijing games.”  He specifically stated that the IOC’s “diplomacy” had led to the passage of three new “bills,” one of them regarding the environment.

Oh pray tell Mr Rogge, what environmental law would that be?  China has done a good job of crafting its environmental laws, it hardly needed any nudging from the environmental specialists at the IOC.  More plainly stated, I am not aware of any environmental law that the IOC was instrumental in having passed in China.  Therefore, I hope that if an enterprising reporter gets a chance to ask any IOC officials a question in the coming weeks, they will try to follow-up on this point.  The answer should be interesting.