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Comment (BEIJING — More than a month before any gold medals will be handed out, China has already achieved one of its biggest Olympic triumphs: a victory over the organizers of an attempted boycott.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the most likely potential leader of the boycott, has now abandoned the idea and will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics next month, according to French media reports Friday.
A day earlier, U.S. President George W. Bush announced that he, too, would attend the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, despite strong pressure from U.S. politicians and human-rights groups who wanted him to join the boycott.
China's Communist rulers, who weathered a storm of pro-Tibet protests in March and April, can now look with satisfaction at how their political manoeuvring has deflated the boycott movement.
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