http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/view=newsarticle.law?NEWSID=401897

And yet people buy goods and services from China on a daily basis. Global brands are falling over themselves to invest there. Neither of these groups show their concern in an overt way.

If our desire is to foment change, then developing closer links, friendships, within the country is a far more likely strategy for success.

So what is different about the Games? Look at the rhetoric in the news: talk of the Games as Pro-China propaganda; their complicity in Darfur; human rights abuses; brutality in Tibet; bloody tyranny; seeking recognition of the region as legitimate; the worlds greatest dictatorship; totalitarian.

Are we so squeaky clean that we have the right to unleash this tirade of anti-Chinese propaganda? What of our complicity in Iraq, or any number of other illegal regime changes and ‘social engineering’ projects? Our human rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay, water boarding etc.

I’m not standing on one side or the other, but merely seeking to make the point that governments, whether democratic or dictator, face major challenges in managing their countries and some of the methods they adopt are necessarily expedient.

By the way, I don’t concur that dictatorships are inherently bad things: Voltaire believed that an enlightened dictatorship was a much better force for positive societal change. I see this borne out by the most successful companies of the last hundred years.

Over time, idealists might hope that we can eradicate suffering, and we should surely try; But our collective history, of thousands of years, suggests that this is a futile cause.

One last thing. When Mitterrand said he would boycott the opening ceremony of the Games, my clear recollection is that Brown said he would not. To then claim that he was never scheduled to attend the opening, smacks of duplicity. Politicians try too hard to be popular and lose credibility every time they do.

So in my view, brands could now seek to distance themselves from what a more radical minority (relatively on both counts) are hoping is a metaphorical sinking ship; but they will be the ultimate losers. Along with the more genuine supporters of change within China.

To show forgiveness to a person or entity who has done wrong is a very good thing however to embrace and show forgiveness whilst human rights abuses are still taking place can never be the correct stance to take.

Asking governments / sports teams to boycott the Olympics is a pointless exercise as everything the Olympics used to stand for was corrupted many years ago (read “New Lord of The Rings” for more info on this).

Many Companies are becoming nervous about their brands being aligned with such a large event taking place in a country whose government has committed abuses of people’s human rights. In all likelihood many Brands will withdraw, which is the correct thing to do to maintain / manage their reputation.

A brand could (or most possibly will) be destroyed by the conversations that take place around it by supporting such an event.

Mike

Two tips:
1> do some research (at your first event if necessary) and check that the kind of contacts you will meet will be of potential use to you – its easy to forget!

2> your time at these events is valuable! if you are stuck talking to someone that is clearly of no interest to you, and you have exhausted the topic and want to move on, politely say to them “Oh, there’s so-and-so over there, I need to catch up with them about such-and-such, please excuse me” – it doesnt hurt feelings and you wont feel like you’ve had your time wasted either.