It is utterly unbelievable how far governments are willing to go to accomodate the authoritarians in charge of China:

The South African government has admitted it decided to bar the Dalai Lama from attending a peace conference with Nobel peace laureates to avoid undermining relations with China.A cabinet statement released late Wednesday said that while South Africa had not acted on a specific demand from Beijing, it was not prepared to “jeopardise” ties nor allow itself to be used as a political platform in the run-up to the hosting of next year’s football World Cup.

“A choice was made in this particular case that our interests will be better served if we give priority to making sure that we don’t jeopardise our bilateral relations with China in this particular case,” government spokesman Themba Maseko said in the statement.

“The government position is that we do not want the sporting events in this country, particularly 2010 (World Cup) to be used as a platform to advance the various different causes around the world, because that diverts attention from the sporting events themselves,” he added.

The peace conference was due to be held Friday but was scrapped as Nobel laureates former president FW de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulled out in protest against the government decision.

Pathetic.

Governments everywhere should tell China it its crimes against humanity will no longer be ignored. The ‘free world’ should back up the Dalai Lama up at every possible occasion. If this angers China, so be it. Perhaps the Chinese should get used to criticism.