For Olympic sponsors, ‘China is an exception’

Although sponsors have been the target of the protests of human rights activists in several countries, they have largely ignored them and opted, rather, keep China and their emerging class of nationalist consumers satisfied.

Companies argue that the Olympic Games are not political and have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in agreements that comprise several Olympics, not just that of Beijing.Together, the thirteen main sponsors have contracts with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which total more than 1000 million dollars.

"It seems that they act as if everything were normal," said McKeown, executive director of the Tibet International Network, a coalition that helped organize the protests of more than 200 groups in favor of human rights that urged a boycott against theOlympic Games."It is literally as if they had buried their head in the sand."