China plans to spy on Olympic hotel guests

WASHINGTON-A Senate lawmaker accused the Chinese government on Thursday of ordering U.S.-owned hotels in China to install Internet filters that can spy on international visitors coming to see the summer Olympic games.Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, made the charge at a Capitol Hill news conference where he and other lawmakers denounced China's record of human rights abuses and urged President Bush not to attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing."This is wrong, it's against international conventions, it's certainly against the Olympic spirit," Brownback said. "The Chinese government should remove that request and that order."Brownback said he has seen the language of memos received by at least two U.S.-owned hotels. He declined to name them, and said he obtained the information from two "reliable but confidential sources" in the hope that public pressure would persuade the Chinese government to back off the demand.The senator called China "the foremost enabler of human rights abuses around the world" and said the Chinese government is turning the summer games into "an Olympics of oppression."Other lawmakers condemned the Chinese government for supporting repressive governments in Sudan and Burma, suppressing dissent in Tibet and forcibly returning North Korean refugees who flee across the border, where they face imprisonment and torture."The number one accomplice of the genocide in Darfur is the Chinese government," said Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. "No official in the executive branch, in the judicial branch and particularly in the congressional branch ought to attend the opening ceremonies of this Olympics."More than a dozen former North Korean refugees who escaped to China and suffered beatings, imprisonment and other persecution at the hands of Chinese officials attended the news conference to discuss their plight.While China wants the Olympics to be a sign of the country's growing prominence on the international stage, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the country's actions confirm that "the Chinese people still live under an iron fist.""The Chinese government was awarded the games on the understanding that it would work to significantly improve it's human rights record," Menendez said. "Clearly, it has not."Brownback said he would press his case for Bush not to attend the Olympic opening ceremonies when the president visits tornado-damaged Greensburg, Kan., on Sunday.Thus far, Bush has given no indication he will skip the Beijing event.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90D0HDG0&show_article=1

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