When this summer's Olympics were planned for Beijing, they were supposed to mark China's coming out as a major power. Now it seems that the games will mark China's emergence as a major source of controversy.

Activists concerned about the massacres in Darfur are calling the 2008 games the "genocide Olympics," since China supports the government of Sudan. They shamed Steven Spielberg out of involvement with the opening ceremonies – and as Spielberg goes, so goes America. Now the violence in Tibet has heads of state and athletes alike wondering whether attending Olympic ceremonies means endorsing the actions of the Chinese government. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German chancellor Angela Merkel will skip the opening of the games, although neither has said much about why, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he may boycott the ceremony. And this is only the second-coolest thing Sarkozy has done.

President Bush hasn't revealed his schedule, but he has no plans to boycott anything Olympic. A White House official even called planned boycotts less effective than America's "quiet diplomacy." Which, judging by the available video footage of Tibet, doesn't seem to be very effective at all.

Any Western government has no business attending an opening ceremony that will legitimize a country that cracks down on culture in Tibet, supports genocide in Sudan, and represses dissent at home. But the sad fact is that we have no choice because the Chinese government now pretty much owns us. Over the past few years, they have bought so much of our debt, in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds, that we've become dependent on them to finance a way of life our country can no longer afford – whether that involves fighting wars abroad or financing McMansions at home. If China began to sell some of its debt, it could undercut the value of Treasuries or further erode the value of the dollar. The Chinese government has us by the purse strings, among other parts too sensitive to mention.

China knows full well how much financial power it wields, and it's not going to be shy about threatening to use it. Any massive sale of Treasury bonds would hurt anyone who owns them – not for nothing is this called China's "nuclear option" – but it would hurt the U.S. worst at a time when we can ill afford any more economic pain. This is bad for the U.S., but it's terrible for the people of Sudan, Tibet, and, potentially, Taiwan. Bush has to go to the Olympics opening ceremony. While he's there, he should learn to say, "Do you want fries with that?" in Mandarin.