BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state media accused Western countries on Thursday of abusing the Olympic Games to pressure Beijing, saying boycotts by movie director Steven Spielberg and others "disgusted" the Chinese people.
The Hollywood director quit as an artistic adviser to theBeijing Games in August, saying China was doing too little tohelp halt bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region, whereKhartoum-linked militia have battled rebel groups.
Nine Nobel Peace laureates also wrote to Chinese PresidentHu Jintao urging he change policy towards Sudan, where Chinahas big oil investments. Beijing has often said it is workingfor peace in Darfur.
While China's Foreign Ministry and the Beijing Olympicorganisers have so far not commented on this volley ofcriticism, the Global Times -- a current affairs tabloid run bythe Communist Party's People's Daily -- hit back.
"Western exploitation of the Olympics to pressure Chinaimmediately provoked much disgust among ordinary Chinesepeople," the paper said.
"The vast majority of Chinese people have expressedbafflement and outrage at the Western pressure. In their view,it's absolutely absurd to place the Darfur issue, so manythousands of miles away, on the head of China."
Even Chinese citizens who complain about losing homes toOlympics Games building opposed Western pressure, the papersaid.
Jin Canrong, an international relations expert at thePeople's University of China in Beijng, told the paper that therenewed criticism over Darfur showed Western powers wereexploiting their "media hegemony" to whip up prejudice.
"Whoever uses this humanitarian issue to criticise Chinaand put pressure on China gains something of a halo," Jin toldthe paper. "The West has seized on China's tremendous emphasison the Olympic Games to criticise China."
Some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have beendriven from their homes in more than four years of conflict inSudan's western region of Darfur, according to estimates byinternational experts. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, while not directlyreferring to Spielberg's decision, called on "relevant parties"to respect the facts about the "positive role played by Chinaon the Darfur issue" and shy away from politicising theOlympics.
"As the Darfur issue is neither an internal issue of China,nor is it caused by China, it is completely unreasonable,irresponsible and unfair for certain organisations andindividuals to link the two as one," the embassy said.
A spokesman for the Beijing Organising Committee for theOlympic Games had no immediate reaction to Spielberg'sannouncement.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)