By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - China voiced its disappointment onThursday over movie director Steven Spielberg's decision toquit his Beijing Olympics role because of China's policies inSudan and said the Games would be a success regardless.
"We express regret," Foreign Ministry spokesman LiuJianchao told a news conference. "All preparation work for theBeijing Olympics is proceeding smoothly. The Chinese people arewilling to work with artists from around the world with wisdomand talent and the Olympic Games will be a success."
The Hollywood director said he pulled out of his role as anartistic adviser because China was doing too little to helphalt the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur,where Khartoum-linked militia have battled rebel groups.
Nine Nobel Peace laureates also wrote to Chinese PresidentHu Jintao urging him to change policy towards Sudan, whereChina has big oil investments. Beijing has often said it isworking for peace in Darfur.
China's state media accused Western countries of abusingthe Olympics to pressure Beijing and said the boycotts"disgusted" Chinese people.
"Western exploitation of the Olympics to pressure Chinaimmediately provoked much disgust among ordinary Chinesepeople," said the Global Times, a current affairs tabloid runby the Communist Party's People's Daily.
"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."
"NOT IN OLYMPIC SPIRIT"
U.S. President George W. Bush said before a trip to Africathat he planned to attend the Beijing Olympics and viewed themas a sporting event, not a stage for expressing his views.
"I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg,so I get to talk to President Hu Jintao. And I do remind himthat he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur," hetold BBC World News America in an interview.
Sudan said Spielberg's decision was based on "wronginformation" and overlooked China's positive role in theregion.
"They are playing a positive role in terms of generalassistance and humanitarian assistance," said Foreign AffairsMinistry spokesman Ali al-Sadig.
"They have peacekeepers there as well."
Liu said Chinese companies operating in Sudan were playinga constructive role, making donations to help reconstructionand engaging in development work such as digging wells.
Beijing's Olympic organising committee said the governmentwas making "unremitting efforts" to resolve the Darfur crisis.
"Linking the Darfur issue to the Olympic Games will nothelp to resolve this issue and is not in line with the Olympicspirit that separates sports from politics," the committee saidin a statement.
Darfur activists quickly retorted that China had long usedthe Olympics in its decades-old dispute with Taiwan and hadjoined the Western-led boycott of 1980 Moscow Olympics.
"China is not being honest about its own use of theOlympics over time -- and even its political use of the Gamesright now," Jill Savitt, executive director of Dream forDarfur, said in a statement.
Some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have beendriven from their homes in more than four years of conflict inDarfur, according to estimates by international experts.Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
"China is also concerned about the humanitarian situationthere and China has played an active role in pushing forwardthe peace process," Liu said.
"Holding up banners and shouting slogans will not solve theproblem. What we need are concrete actions."
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Nick Mulvenney, GuoShipeng and Paul Eckert in Washington, writing by Lindsay Beck;Editing by Nick Macfie, Robert Woodward and Eric Walsh)