From CNN – Britain’s Prince Charles will not attend the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing — and a group that campaigns against China’s human rights record said Monday that the future monarch’s decision was in solidarity with its aims.
Free Tibet Campaign officials said they had written to the Prince of Wales asking him to stay away from the event, which begins on August 8.
However, it was not clear if the prince had been invited to attend — he is believed to have gone to an Olympics only once before, when his sister Princess Anne competed in Montreal in 1976.
The Princess Royal’s daughter, Zara Phillips, is hoping to represent Britain in equestrian at the event this year. Her father, Captain Mark Phillips, won a gold medal at the 1972 Munich Games.
A spokeswoman for the Prince of Wales told CNN Monday that his office did not comment on private correspondence, but said, “There are no plans to attend the ceremony.”
The Free Tibet group told the prince — a long-time supporter of Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama — that human rights conditions in China and the small Himalayan nation had deteriorated since China was awarded the summer sporting showpiece, despite its promises to improve them.
“With all that in mind, we asked the prince not to go to the Games because to do so would represent the tacit endorsement of the worsening human rights situation in Tibet,” spokesman Matt Whitticase told CNN.
Whitticase said his group received a prompt response from the prince’s deputy private secretary, informing it of the prince’s decision to stay away.
The Free Tibet Campaign said the letter from the prince’s office read:
“As you know, His Royal Highness has long taken a close interest in Tibet. You asked if the Prince of Wales would be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His Royal Highness will not be attending the ceremony.”
Whitticase said his group was now asking other high-profile leaders to follow the prince’s “principled example.”
“We feel these Games are destined to become known as the ‘Games of Shame’,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Beijing. Earlier this month, a foreign ministry spokeswoman told the state news agency that some groups were trying to politicize the Games “to slur China’s image and to put pressure on the Chinese government.”
“No country in the world is perfect in human right issues,” spokeswoman Jiang Yu told Xinhua. “The Chinese people are enjoying many rights that they have never enjoyed before.”
Prince Charles was embroiled in controversy over China in 2005 when British newspapers published details from one of his private journals, in which he called diplomats from the communist country “appalling old waxworks” following the handover of Hong Kong.
The Free Tibet Campaign, founded 20 years ago, advocates an end to China’s occupation of Tibet.
The Dalai Lama has called for more autonomy from communist China and asked that it grant Tibetans the freedom to practice their religion.
China claims that it is the rightful and legitimate government of Tibet after its 1951 invasion. It sees the Dalai Lama’s work as part of “separatist activities.”
Precious Metal: the blog 
I think the Olympics are a positive thing for China. It puts them in the world spotlight and will help them take positive steps in the right direction to begin to correct some of the issues they are having.
Mike Smith
To boldly not go where one hasn’t been invited. No wonder QE II is in no rush to let Prince Charles be King.
Hey Charlie boy, the British colonial empire is dead, and rotting in hell!
And – for your information, Hong Kong is never going to be your, or anyone else, colony ever again, so let it go, you bitter old man !
As for handing out invitations of the Olympic Opening Ceremony to nations’ head of state is just a formality – which is the Olympic tradition, thus please don’t mistaking this, even just for a second, that the Chinese are eager to rolling our welcoming carpet for your arrival! And if you think otherwise, then you are even dumber than the world thought you are — if a man willing to give up a world class beauty in Diana Spencer, and marry a truly “appalling old waxwork” of Camilla Parker, is not a dumbest asshole on the planet earth, then who the hell is???!!! Now, Charlie boy, why don’t you go fly a kite, because you mean nothing to us, or anyone else on the earth, so don‘t flatter yourself, you heard?!