Now the nations are stepping into line and giving a reality check on attendance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Australian Sports Minister George Brandis said Australia would attend the Games.

He told parliament that in reference to the Falun Gong’s more outrageous claims about harvesting human remains: ‘The Australian government isn’t making a link between the two issues. There’s no issue about Australia’s participation in the Beijing Olympics being reconsidered.’

The minister said there were other ways for Australia to address human rights issues with China with out specifiying the methods.

Last month China last month overtook Japan as Australia’s number one trading partner, with two-way trade between the countries exceeding $40 billion dollars.

China outlawed Falun Gong in mid-1999. Since then the group, which claims to have more than 100 million followers worldwide, has campaigned from abroad against what they claim is brutal persecution of their followers in China. Anyone who tries to get a visa for China in any Australian city has to run the gauntless of Falun Gong activists. On the other hand, there is some evidence to suggest that the government of China has, perhaps, over-reacted to people who would normally be considered part of the Nutty Norah fringe who believe that qigong, a subset of tai chi, is the answer to all of the world’s ailments.
Source: AFP