the olympic games / national shame?

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're aware that this summer's Games are being held in Beijing, and that the recent violence in Tibet has brought a number of the Chinese government's diplomacy policies into the already critical eye of the global community, and subsequently, under attack. The controversy is a clash of several titanic forces, from Security Council government entities to powerful corporate sponsors of the Games and its participants, including, notably Nike. Olympic hopefuls have in recent months voiced concern over the air quality in Beijing, and now, athletes find themselves faced with the possibility of an Olympics boycott.
With regards to this, I defer to my childhood hero, the egregiously hot, if not particularly eloquent Gary Hall Jr.:

"A 10-medal winner, Mr. Hall said he avoided speaking about politics, but he has been outspoken on subjects related to doping in sports. “There’s a time and place for the issues and causes,” he said. “The Olympic Games and politics don’t go together well.”

I'm more interested the way the Chinese government would react under a real threat of boycott, or - heavens! - a boycott. It's a feisty ruling body, struggling, it seems, to reconcile its iron-fist policies with China's rapid economic - and thus social - development in the year's following China's re-opening of its doors and ports to the West. Western culture is ingrained as superior in Shanghai, as a result of the city's fling with Europe during the Opium Wars, during which the various parts were de facto segregated.
Today, the former French Concession District is still the trendiest and most expensive area for young people to convene (Shanghai's SoHo, if you will). The pricey clubs and restaurants ensure that foreigners are the most common patrons, because ex-patriot salaries are much, much higher. Import taxes keep foreign products absurdly expensive as well (36 rmb for a Nivea chapstack at Watsons! compared to 6rmb for a local brand), which make them highly desirable to citizens of a country rising rapidly out of poverty. Foreign film and television are immensely popular as well (I hear a lot about 'Prison Break').
American visas are thus notoriously difficult for Chinese citizens to obtain, because, somebody once explained, the government wants to keep its people from deflecting to the glamorized States. This, however, places the old Party between a roc and a hard place, you see, because the thing Chinese and Chinese-Americans are MOST sensitive about is losing face. And as a not-first-world country with near-first-world influence, the Olympics are an ideal venue to show the world that China is more than ready to hang with the cool kids. Only, unfortunately, there are a number of certain indisputable barriers to entry (freedom of the press, for instance) that the Chinese government can't risk even attempting to sweep under the rug, because to do so would undermine the core of its authority.
So, yeah. It'll be interesting.