Despite continued international efforts to keep the Olympic Games out of politics, Steven Spielberg has withdrawn as artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics, citing China’s failure to use its economic clout to force a resolution of the crisis in Darfur.

He said in a statement, “Sudan’s government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing suffering there.” China provides nearly all of Sudan’s oil, thereby effectively “underwriting genocide,” according to activists.

Spielberg’s decision could encourage other U.S. entertainers to boycott Olympics productions. In an interview with today’s (Wednesday) New York Times actor Don Cheadle, who heads the Darfur activist group Not on Our Watch, commented that if actions like Spielberg’s, “catch fire, and other people think of boycotting, or refraining, the cumulative effect could be something that potentially could change the calculation of [the Chinese] government.”

WENN