From an interview with David Clay Large, historian of Modern Germany and author of "Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936.''
Hoelterhoff: What about the Beijing Games? China is no longer a place of mass murder, I guess, but hardly a paradise for human rights.
Large: Whenever the IOC (International Olympic Committee) awards the Games to some authoritarian place, it claims that the Games will force those countries to improve their records on human rights. It's quite the opposite. These countries redouble their efforts for security, round up troublemakers and start up special police brigades.
Of course, Beijing is doing that now, with increased scrutiny, under the guise of sanitizing slum areas and forcibly removing the occupants.
At some point, the IOC should drop this cant about how the Games liberalize these countries.