BEIJING — The Olympics are back in China, whether athletes and activists want them here or not. In spirit, the International Olympic Committee is just another corporation willing to take a PR hit in exchange for the treasure of doing business with China. Put its tax-exempt status aside. Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, were the only two cities that bid for these Games to the end, and the IOC went where the money was (and is). It is the IOC’s way.
If that makes you uneasy as you watch these Olympics … well, it should. The Olympics are a wonderful sporting event colored by geopolitical tensions and packaged by a morally amorphous organization with a history of corruption.