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If it thought it was good business, would the National Football League schedule an exhibition game in Tehran or Havana?

If the reports coming out of the NFL and the New England Patriots last week are true, one may be excused for wondering.

Reports surfaced in the press this week that the league plans to stage an exhibition game in Beijing next year that would pit the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots.

What's more, the Patriots, if presented with the opportunity, would be `` very interested'' in participating in the NFL's first contest in China, according to team spokesman Stacey James.

If the thought of the Patriot mascot cavorting in front of the assembled Politburo or the flag-waving NFL courting a regime that hates America and is one of the most repressive on the planet strikes you as ironic, it ought to. Propaganda coup

The Patriots-owning Kraft family, a leader in business as well as football, has had a commercial relationship with the People's Republic of China for years, selling scrap paper to an insatiable Chinese market. That's to be expected in a global trade environment.

But staging an NFL tailgate party in Beijing offers the oppressors of nearly a billion Chinese undeserved cachet and an undreamed-of propaganda coup.

Think China is just a neocapitalist purveyor of cheap appliances to Wal-Mart? Think again. Read what an official Chinese government report, as reprinted in the People's Daily, says about the conduct of American servicemen in Iraq:

`` The US troops often plunder Iraqi households when tracking down anti-US militants since the invasion. The American forces has (sic) so far committed at least thousands of robberies and 90 percent of the Iraqis that have been rummaged are innocent.''

And here's what the Chinese communists, who routinely jail thousands of political dissenters and the religious, have the gall to say about America's human rights record with respect to other countries:

`` Despite tons of problems in its own human rights, the United States continues to stick to its belligerent stance, wantonly trample on the sovereignty of other countries, and constantly stage tragedies of human rights infringement in the world.''

Low grades from Amnesty

On top of China's provocative insults against America, here's what Amnesty International had to say about the Chinese Communists own human rights record in 2005:

`` There was progress towards reform in some areas, but this failed to have a significant impact on serious and widespread human rights violations perpetrated across the country. Tens of thousands of people continued to be detained or imprisoned in violation of their fundamental human rights and were at high risk of torture or ill-treatment. Thousands of people were sentenced to death or executed, many after unfair trials. Public protests increased against forcible evictions and land requisition without adequate compensation. China continued to use the global `war on terrorism' to justify its crackdown on the Uighur community in Xinjiang. Freedom of expression and religion continued to be severely restricted in Tibet and other Tibetan areas of China.'' Not only that:

`` Political crackdowns continued on specific groups, including the Falun Gong spiritual movement, unofficial Christian groups, and so-called `separatists' and `religious extremists' in Xinjiang and Tibet.''

You can throw in China's persecution of pro-democracy groups, including the detention of activist mothers of those killed in the government's 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and the ongoing suppression of independent trade unions and AIDS activists.

Should the NFL consummate its embrace of Red China's criminal dictatorship, I hope the resulting television ratings are worth the stain on its conscience.

I can't bear to watch.

rdrtrdrsrdrw15rsp160 RICK FOSTER is a Sun Chronicle news editor.