Why do we in Britain see Chinese athletes as cheaters, cranks and robots? Why is China bashing so natural for us Brits? Less than a week into the Games, we've already got a slur on 16-year-old swimming superstar Ye Shiwen. We also did a story on China's "brutal training factories". We witnessed the media gloating after China's top female badminton players were disqualified.

    Observers view the Chinese with an ugly mixture of envy and ignorance, doubting their ability to win so many MEDALS and sickening of their undivided devotion to training and excellence. This is the real reason why we see the Chinese as outliers -- because they remain faithful defenders of the values that the increasingly defeatist British abandoned long ago, namely devotion and determination to win.

    Take a look at some of the truly shocking discussions about China's Olympic training regime. The Daily Mirror told us that China USES "almost torture training methods". China's Olympic system is "a £500m bureaucratic machine" apparently designed to "churn out" Olympians and "ensure China's pre-eminence in world sport". The newspaper said Chinese athletes had been "manufactured like robots from the indifferent production lines of the human body".


    Such reports reflect not only racist views of the far East, but also our own discomfort with the idea of pressuring young people to do well -- that is, putting pressure on them to excel. Our own reluctance to demand and "place high hopes" on young people, as we have in the past, makes us look with horror at the Chinese pressuring their children! The Chinese did not "torture" their great future sports stars -- only because we pompous Brits now regard discipline and experience as torture.

    Or consider the discussion about cheating among badminton players from eastern countries. Is the behavior of these women really so incredible? It is not unusual for athletes to preserve their strength in the first few rounds of the Games or to employ strategies that ensure a strong position in later competitions.

    Pierre DE Coubertin, the "father of the modern Olympics", said he was inspired by the spirit of excellence and expectation in the English public schools. But that spirit is nowhere to be found in Britain today. And China has this spirit. Let's stop there. Or act and try to rediscover and promote this spirit within the United Kingdom. But please stop treating the Chinese like cheaters, cranks and robots.