U.S. Rep. James McGovern wants everyone to enjoy the Olympics, but he is also hoping viewers will boycott the television commercials to protest the human rights record of host country China.

McGovern, D-Worcester, said he will be rooting for U.S. athletes at the games, but at the same time he is outraged by China's crackdown on dissent and its support for the regime in Sudan.

The congressman said he is concerned that the NBC television network covering the Olympics is "whitewashing" China's actions in beating and jailing reporters and political activists and not reporting on the arms it is sending to Sudan that are used in the "genocide" in the Darfur region.

Turning off the TV during advertisements and going on the Web site switchovertodarfur.org will send a powerful message to the network and its corporate sponsors, he said.

For his part, McGovern said he has written to NBC and President George W. Bush, and will be writing a blog during the games to protest the situation. He said China should never have been selected as the Olympic host in the first place, and since then the country has broken promises to respect human rights.

"An Olympics of photo ops and pretty pictures carefully choreographed and controlled by the Chinese authorities cannot be tolerated," he said.

McGovern said China has cracked down on protests over its treatment of Tibet and jailed critics of its domestic policies.

The suppression of critics continues right up to the opening gun of the games, he said.

McGovern said that in recent days:

Housing activist Ni Yulan was beaten and jailed after objecting to the government tearing down a neighborhood for an Olympic makeover.

Harvard fellow and government critic Yang Jianli - with whom McGovern recently met - was detained in Hong Kong and refused entry into China despite having a valid passport and being a Chinese citizen.

Former American Olympian Joey Cheek, a critic of China's policy toward Darfur, was denied permission to attend the games because of fears he would take his criticisms to journalists covering the event.

McGovern said Bush, corporations and NBC have been afraid to criticize China too much because the country has become an economic power.