When the first world war ended, the League of Nations sounded like a great idea. Gathering representatives where everyone had an equal vote seemed a good way to prevent future wars, but twenty years later we were off again with six years of world war two.
When that ended we tried again, but this time we called it the United Nations and that has stopped us progressing to world war three, but mainly because of the fear of mutual nuclear destruction. The world is an armed camp with nuclear tipped missiles ever ready for response against a surprise attack.
The present enigma is China. The worlds most populous country has emerged as a trading giant and it will soon achieve military might that will equal other superpowers. Already it is showing expansionist tendencies that worry its neighbours. It has claimed the South China sea as sovereign territory and enhanced atolls into fortified military bases. This is one of the world's premium shipping routes and should China close it to merchant traffic the effect on world trade would be disastrous.
China fought an internal civil war and the Communist side won. China has just torn up the agreement it negotiated with Britain when the Hong Kong colony was returned to Chinese control and China is threatening a military invasion to impose its authority on the island of Taiwan, where the defeated Nationalists retreated when they lost the civil war.
The free world is getting concerned at Chinese actions on its perimeter where people of mixed race are being herded into " education camps " to be indoctrinated in Communist ideology and forced to renounce whatever religion they follow. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Xinjiang province are in detention and now this is being extended to Tibet. Entire families are forced behind the wire and are held in detention until their examiners are satisfied that change has been achieved. There is also unrest on the border separating China with India and this has degenerated into loss of life by both sides.
China insists that its citizens will hear and read only what its Communist rulers decide is the version of history of which they approve. The censors pen dictates what can appear on news broadcasts and what literature will be allowed. The Chinese masses are barred from accessing the world internet.
China has isolated the Buddhist and the Roman Catholic religions from their international control. The Vatican is barred from approving new priests and these are now appointed by Beijing and it is Beijing that dictates the ideology that will apply. Religion has been driven underground, and continuing to follow that religion is fast becoming a criminal offence.
As China's trading power grows, so does its control of the masses. Perhaps the only way to convince China's rulers to extend civilized rules on their citizens is by way of excluding them from the world of sporting competition unless that is granted. China is scheduled to hold the winter Olympic games and pressure is building for that to be held elsewhere.
Access to world sport is the glue that keep the masses content. It is probably the only the leverage point the rest of the world has to make Beijng see reason on how it treats its citizens.
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