Just give us the Olympics and we'll improve...PSYCH!

It is impossible to comprehend China's human rights progress in the years leading up to the current Olympics without first recalling the challenge the PRC volunteered for when it began its fight for the Beijing Games. So let's take a step back and glance over some of the human rights standards China was expected to meet prior to the Olympics, courtesy of olympicwatch.org:

1) "RATIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (ICCPR)."
2) "NO USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST PEACEFUL DEMOCRATIC ACTION."
3) "GUARANTEED DEMOCRACY IN HONG KONG."
4) "ABOLITION OF THE LAOGAI / LAOJIAO CAMPS."

So, how successful were the Chinese with these conditions? We'll allow you to judge for yourself, in the spirit of harmonious glorious loving worldwide Olympic sappiness:

-"RATIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (ICCPR)."
-Though China signed the ICCPR a decade ago, the treaty has not yet been ratified.

-"NO USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST PEACEFUL DEMOCRATIC ACTION."
-China's less-than-exemplary history with peaceful protests, coupled with the recent flood of “More than 34,000 military personnel and 74 airplanes, 47 helicopters and 33 naval ships...” in and around Beijing, is somewhat unsettling. Not to mention the fact that the thousands of security cameras and monitoring systems put in place for the Olympics will continue to be used after the games, as pointed out by Edward Wong and Keith Bradsher of the International Herald Tribune.

-"GUARANTEED DEMOCRACY IN HONG KONG."
-According to a Congressional Research Service report by Michael Martin, democratic election of the Chief Executive in Hong Kong won't happen until 2017 at best, and don't even think about legislative officials until 2020. Martin's report is based upon a decision by the Chinese National People's Congress.

-"ABOLITION OF THE LAOGAI / LAOJIAO CAMPS."
-A 2008 report by The Laogai Research Foundation lists 298 currently operating “prison facilities” in the PRC. That number includes only verified prisons and labor camps, and does not count many of the more clandestine facilities.

Well, they tried, and that's all that really matters, isn't it? Let's just put China's mockery of democracy and basic freedoms on the back burner and have fun in Beijing – just don't look suspicious, or you'll end up mining coal in the Shanxi Province.