This "genocide" riff is coming from the Free Tibet campaign.
Do you think if the people in Tibet voted they would want to be like Nepal? All the clashes between police and monks have been in Nepal or India although the German newspapers and CNN seem to think Nepal and India are someplace in Lhasa and have been showing pictures of gray cami uniforms of the Nepalese police or the plain brown uniforms of the Indian police as if they were Chinese. Sloppy reporting or something worse.

I'm afraid the Western press and Western politicians are pushing the Free Tibet line and most of us don't get anything but that story. It has been repeated so often that most people in the West don't know any better.

Janice , Northampton, Massachusetts

The Clintons of course are an embarrassment, not only to Gordon Brown but also to all with a sense of measure.

The fact however remains that there is a crisis, one that inevitably draws from the amoral tradition of the Olympic movement itself: it has allowed itself to be used by all manner of contemptible agendas, from the Hitlerite Berlin Games (the torch-related kitsch with the pseudo-pagan priestesses and the like, has its origins in these games), to Brundage's sponsoring the invitation of the Stalinist Soviets, to the lesser abominations of the murder of over 300 protesting leftist students in Mexico City (1968) in order to secure peace, and now the Chinese regime's brutality.

Add events that used the Olympics as a stage, such as the murder of the Israeli athletes in Munich (1972), not to mention the boycott of the Moscow (1980) games, and you have is a mass media extravaganza, which all too willingly compromises with tyrants and ignores injustice, in the name of a faux "ideal"

Aristide Caratzas, Athens, Greece

How ridiculous.

BBC was the one that misrepresented the facts.
Clinton was just capitalizing on it.

Stop blaming this on Clinton.

Joan, New York,

At least it is not a new development for the British PM to bend over backwards supporting the American President and be regularly knee capped and embarrased in return. It can be very hard to be America's friend. Poor Tony Blair was long suffering in his relationship with Bush II and Clinton wasn't a picnic on Yugoslavia, either. We have too great a habit of seeing even our closest friends as pawns to move around for domestic political gain.

Ron, Allentown, PA

Why do mistakes, missteps and confusion follow this woman almost everytime she speaks? And she's expecting a whole nation to follow her lead? Think again. With all her millions in the bank she should invest in a fact-checker before she opens her mouth again.

Melissa, Houston, USA/Tx

The text of the TImes article confirms what Gordon Brown stated as his intentions re the opening ceremonies. He's not going. He's going to attend the closing ceremonies. Hillary Clinton did not mispeak. She didn't get it wrong. The Huffington Post, already in the tank for Obama, is losing any credibility in its political news reporting with each passing day.

E Sarfatti, Washington, DC, USA

W Tao in Wuhan - Your own country China should take the advice you dispense here. Tibet is another country and should not be interfered with by China!!!! For the record, I am of Chinese ancestry myself, but have the good fortune to be living in a free country.

Ed, Toronto, Canada

HAHA clintons going to lose the election anyway who cares what she says :P

Jonny Shi, New York,

She just made a miss-stepment. Shoulda had a V8!! *LOL*

Ollie Garth, New Egypt, USofA

hello,Mr editor,i am a collage student inCHINA,i can not agree with your views.
Have you ever been to CHINA ,have you the truth of "Tibet Events"?please do not say anything and intervene the business of other country.

w tao, WUHAN, CHINA

Clinton can't even read the news correctly. How will she read intellegence reports?

sophia, nyc,

I saw news links at Yahoo!, which posts Reuters and AP stories, with the same headling "Brown to boycott Olympic opener." But in the ever-changing world of digital headlines, which can be posted and erased and forgotten in minutes, it's not impossible to believe that Hillary Clinton was told by someone who read the same or a similar article that Brown was apparently skipping the ceremony. Sure, she probably should have called the leader of another country before she spoke about his actions based on hearsay, but still, anyone trying to say that this was more than just a simple mistake is being unfairly critical. People in glasses houses and their stones, after all.

Michael, Hainesport, NJ, USA

According to the UK media Mark Penn is just about to get hired by the Gordon Brown government. Looks like Penn is off to a good start. Let's see how much damage he can do to both political figures.

Emily, Chicago,

Well now that Huffington Post blogger has tried to 'sink' Barack will the press be so vigilant on another 'missspeak' by Hillary Clinton. After all, she is the one with all that foreign affairs experience, to quote Hillary, "Put Barack's name in this article and see what would happen."

No, she is too busy taking cheap shots at Barack.

Susan, Cary, NC

Billary is the best reason in the world to VOTE FOR ANYONE ELSE.

SJ, Philadelphia , Pa.

People like Neil remind me of those "useful fools" like the Webbs who, in the 1930s, waxed lyrical about the Soviet Union and that master of genocide, Stalin, a genocide he carried out, among others, against Ukraine. Does he really expect us to believe, that, when he wanders through the "earthly paradise "of China, he is not being monitored by the equivalent of the blue-suited "guardians of the torch" in London and Paris? And that people feel free to come up to him and give their honest opinions of the thuggish regime which governs them? We all know that China is a very diverse country (as was the Soviet Union). We also know that the majority ethnic group (the Russians and the Han) enforce(d)their rule using brute force, because they think they are ethnically superior to all others. I'll take the word of the Dalai Lama that what is happening in Tibet is cultural genocide.

Brian , San Francisco,

CS:

The genocide happened in the 1950s: between 400,000 and 1.2 million victims, depending on which estimates you use (but even the lower one is staggering). Official Chinese census records indicate 300,000 fewer Tibetains in 1965 than in 1950. Torture was widespread, particularly against the clergy, and more than 95% of monasteries were destroyed. It is lamentable that this is not cited more often today, as if the protests were just some minor local grievance and not the result of one of the great postwar crimes of the 20th century.

As for other minorities: talk to the Uighurs in Xianjiang (as I have) and they might give you a different opinion about being treated "well".

TW, Paris

Todd Wiggins, Paris, France

The Clintons embarrass Americans too.

Amy Hasslacher, Washington, DC, USA

How the media love the term genocide these days.

Every other conflict seems to involve "genocide"

You can have wars, very ugly ones, without them actually being genocide in the true sense of the word.

Tibet is a dispute over independence, no race is being wiped out, otherwise China would have completed the job by now.

Whether China is a repressive regime is probably less in dispute, as the evidence is clear that there are by our measures human rights infringements, but I would suggest we look to our own behaviour before being too critical of others.

Democracy has it's own problems - Guantanamo bay anyone?

martin, bridgwater,

Xingjiang is one region that comes to mind – if you travelled through the area and seen what the Chinese authorities have been doing to the local population in the last 25 years. It’s not just about the genocide the Chinese are doing in Tibet but there are other regions. It’s the same as the genocide again the Muslin population of Bosnia by Serbiera. It’s the one main evil human rights violation that a governing body could afflict on an ethnic group. You work out the population percentage of those regions 25 years back to the present day. Another 25 years will it just be pure Han Chinese? Not a very Olympic ideal to wipe out an ethnic group from the face of the earth.

Antony Masters, Battersea, London, UK

Surely, Brown is far too thick skinned to be embarrassed by anyone or anything. We see examples every day.

Neil, Cheltenham, England

As a Brit who has lived here in China for almost twenty years I find the comments of Antony Masters really sad and totally ill-informed. There is no genocide in China, I repeat, none! I have travelled repeatedly throughout this vast country and the impression gained is a positive discrimination towards the ethnic groups. China is a very diverse country and the 56 nationlaity groups are a very important part of the country. Where there is a sizeable population so there are either ethnic prefectures or if there is a really large presence of a group the area becomes an Autonomous Region, for example, many people will be familiar with the wonderful scenery around Guilin. That city is located within the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Either locally or provincially, where an ethnic group is large, the local governor comes from that ethnic group. Ethnic groups are not under the same restraints as the Han regarding the One Child Policy. Ethnic groups are respected in China and are loved.

John, Beijing, China

Seriously, does China really care if Brown or Bush are at the opening ceremony? I mean, both men are embarrassments to their own people, and I for one don't want Brown bumbling around, making his usual faux pas. And does anyone think that any non-attendance will make one iota of a difference to China's treatment of its people? If anything, it will harden the regime's attitude. Are we all going to stop buying Chinese goods? No. Are we going to stop trade and investment in China? No. Will the UN, or any other nation or group of nations intervene? No. China will continue to do as it pleases.

Duncan Morley, Tunbridge Wells,

China needs to know that brutal suppression will not work and that as a member of the global community it has to respect human rights. Banning and controlling the media will not do! Olympics are global events - and China has no right to have its own way if it rejects working with the Dalai Lama. It will face a boycott of the Opening Ceremony - it will be to blame. We are not living in free countries to be dictated to by Communist thugs.

A S Kang, London, UK

Anthony Masters there is a big difference between killing protesters and being unpleasant and heavy handed.

China looks after most of its ethnic minorities pretty well, there is no genocide. There IS political repression and cultural assimilation of Tibetans by the Han but that it far from genocide.

Come on, China gives us enough scope to bash them without having to make things up.

CS, Sydney, Australia

The riots in Tibet, the disruptions of the Olympic flame parades, all point to a united front by the West and India to undermine and belittle China. The Chinese citizens are now united against their distractors. Its high time that the Chinese government back their own citizens and fundamentally reassess her strategic interests and recognize the threat.

Cliff, Toronto, Canada

Senator Clinton has once again jumped to conclusions ........in her haste to be 'me first'.

After the Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Bosnia fiascos, she should have learned to be sure of what she is saying before getting out in front on a world stage.............

Laurie, Pittsfield, MA

Mr Masters, please can you enlighten me as to the 'genocide of ethnic groups' in my country??

Only I feel sure we would have noticed you see.....

Pu Li, Guangxi,

Dont understand what is unclear when he said “Britain will be attending the Olympic Games ceremonies.” That he will attend the closing and another minister will be attending the opening is matter of detail - he did say 'Britain' afterall not 'me'. Another 'slip of the tongue' by Clinton - she should try to get her own stories right first.

A, London, London

......And he is making decisions on behalf of the nation - get me out of here quick !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

Perhaps Gordon hadn't decided whether to attend both ceremonies or not - and was awaiting the result of a Review into Prime Ministerial attendances at Olympic Games held by repressive regimes. He was just keeping his options open when he said 'ceremonies.'

Donna Walker, Effingham, Surrey

I am glad to hear that Gordon Brown has finally made his mind up and announced his attentions about the Ceremonies. Personally I would send a junior minister to the Closing Ceremony and not have Gordon Brown or any Cabinet Minister attending. This would make a statement of how people in Britain felt about the genocide of ethnic groups in China and Tibet.

Antony Masters, Battersea, London, UK

If the PM does not want to be misunderstood he should construct his pronouncements more clearly.

Michael Taylor, Dunbar, Scotland