By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 22, 2008
BEIJING, March 21 -- Chinese officials' harsh response to protests in Tibet has brought a fresh wave of accusations that corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics are partners with a government that ignores basic human rights.
Amid a widening crackdown in the remote Himalayan province, human rights organizations have renewed demands that Coca-Cola, Visa, General Electric and other international companies explain their dealings with the Communist government as it prepares to host the Summer Games.
Many of those companies have invested millions of dollars in enterprises associated with the Olympics, traditionally a venue for both mass marketing and political protest. But China's poor human rights record poses a special challenge for companies seeking to capitalize on a worldwide audience while maintaining reputations as good global citizens.
Sponsors are talking privately to Olympics organizers, turning to PR companies for more help and meeting with each other in an effort to plot strategy, according to activists and advisers. No companies are considering pulling out yet, but many know that this is just the beginning of a concentrated push by a variety of interest groups.
The companies are "at the table; they're able to use quiet diplomacy to send messages of the importance of being responsible global citizens," said one Beijing-based public relations adviser to sponsors, who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely.
"In their interactions with the government, they would talk through issues and share some of the challenges," the adviser said. "There are officials inside the government that are genuinely interested in understanding what the world thinks and how images and messages are communicated around the world."
Video and photos of the crackdown have made it past Chinese government censors, reinvigorating the pressure on the Games' financial backers.
"The role of the sponsors in subsidizing this event, while monks are being shot, is not going to look very good," said Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. Major companies have the ability to "get the ear" of the Chinese leadership, she said.
"What's at stake is much more than the tens of millions of dollars these sponsors have bet on the Games. It's their future business with China," said Damien Ryan, a Hong Kong-based media relations adviser for Olympic sponsors. "Officials here read between the lines, and that's why sponsors are thinking carefully about their response."
Dream for Darfur, an activist group, said it put out a statement to sponsors Monday, after the Tibet uprising, saying that public relations issues surrounding the Olympics had grown and that it was eager to discuss what action might be taken. While there was no immediate response, three companies later agreed to meet with the group Friday and two companies agreed to meet next week.
"They're concerned. I think they wish this would all go away," said Jill Savitt, the group's executive director.
"The Chinese government's lack of experience in dealing with international opinion is obvious," said Guan Kai, a sociologist in Beijing. The government "didn't expect so many foreign activists would take advantage of the Olympics to advance their own agendas," Guan said.
The Games are being framed by many China observers as the country's arrival on the world stage. The Olympics are expected to attract an estimated 500,000 tourists and 4 billion television viewers.
Corporate sponsors are walking a fine line, trying to appear sensitive while arguing that the Games not be politicized.
"The Coca-Cola company is expressing deep concern for the situation on the ground in Tibet. We know that all parties involved hope for a peaceful resolution," the company said in a statement.
"While it would be an inappropriate role for sponsors to comment on the political situation of individual nations, as the longest standing sponsor of the Olympic movement, we firmly believe that the Olympics are a force for good."
Like Coca-Cola, South Korea's Samsung Electronics is a sponsor of the torch relay, which will include a stop on Mount Everest. Activists say they plan to disrupt the relay in cities inside and outside China.
"We just go with the flow," said a Beijing-based spokesman for Samsung who identified himself only by his surname, Zou. "I believe the government can ensure the success of the Beijing Olympic Games. And I haven't heard that any group will protest in Tibet or anything like this. We are not so concerned about this."
Some sponsors are reviewing their media strategies and considering scaling back the number of news conferences they will host, Ryan said. They are also likely to reduce the number of company spokesmen and shift focus to one-on-one interviews that they feel they can better control.
"Media and public relations is only a small part of a sponsorship deal, but it's the riskiest element," he said. Sponsors do not want their executives or endorsed athletes facing a barrage of questions about whether they agree with China's human rights record.
"Sponsors used to be able to go out there and engage the media and get maybe one or two tough questions. But the days of flashy smiles, corporate suits and great statements are over," Ryan said. "The risks have increased in the last two weeks because of the Tibet uprising and unrest."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner this week floated the prospect of boycotting the Games' opening ceremony because of China's response to the protests, saying the idea may be discussed at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Slovenia next week. But he backed away from the statement later, telling French media that it was "unrealistic."
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that China has banned international broadcasters, including NBC, from taking live shots of Tiananmen Square, the site of a bloody 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters.
Dream for Darfur, which has rated the sponsors of the Beijing Olympics and "failed" 13 of the 19 companies for their lack of response, said it was also leaning toward a boycott of the opening ceremony. It does not advocate a boycott of the Games.
"That companies are responding and agreeing to meet with us shows they're feeling more pressure," Savitt said. "The activists with the Tibetan movement have lent an urgency. For those sponsors who wanted to engage by just talking, they now feel enormous pressure to take some action. But they are largely at a loss for what to do."
Staff writer Jason Ukman in Washington contributed to this report.
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