Olympic Updates

China will never submit to taunting or political pressure from groups or governments wishing to use the Beijing Olympics to change Chinese policy, a leading state-run newspaper said on Tuesday.

Activists around the globe are seizing on this year's Olympics to pressure Beijing on a range of issues, from freedom of religion to Taiwan and Tibet.

Actress Mia Farrow has been leading a global campaign for China to change its policies in Sudan, whose government Beijing sells weapons to and buys oil from.

"As the Beijing Olympics have become a popular talking point around the world, some who look at the Chinese people with tinted spectacles have created a sort of baffling 'excitement'," Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said in a strongly worded opinion piece.

"They believe they can exert enough pressure on the Chinese government to force China into a situation where it cannot but do their bidding," it said. "These people have made the wrong calculation."

They would be especially mistaken to think that Beijing would give ground on Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own, the piece added. (...more)