Lemon: China and an Olympic Boycott

Watching Michael Coren last night the issue of a boycott of the Beijing Games was brought up as a potential strategy to improve human rights in China.

Mark Warner, who's running against Bob Rae for a Toronto seat, came through perfectly in his response - basically that it would have little effect and that China isn't going anywhere, and that we have to deal with them. And he should know, his bio (www.markwarner.ca) reveals that he spent many years working for the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation. So he knows his stuff as far as global economic issues go.

I remember back in the early 80's when the USA and Canada (among others) boycotted the Moscow Games. I even had several friends who were shut out of their Olympic participation by this. I've also worked on a couple of global scale sport bids so have certain sympathy for the real victims of a boycott - the athletes.
One thing stands out - Berry's World - a political comic strip - showed two Russians (with Sable hats and the Kremlin in the background) chatting. One said, "The way I heard it is that the American imperialists threatened to boycott the Olympics so we had to invade Afghanistan."

In any case, what was the outcome of this boycott of a games on the human rights violating nation?
Within ten years they lost their grip on Eastern Europe and the commies were given the boot.