In a shameful repetition of 1936 in Berlin, British athletes will be expected to remain silent about the evil of the host country at this summer’s Olympics – not only in Beijing, but between the time of their selection and their return to the UK.

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing.

The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest.

The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes' contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games.

It is contained in a 32-page document that will be presented to all those who reach the qualifying standard and are chosen for the team.

From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China's politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet.

But then again, this should be no shock. The current head of the British Olympic Association, Lord Colin Moynihan, violated the 1980 boycott of the Moscow Olympics to suck up to the Reds in Moscow. Of course he will act in a manner supportive of Communist dictatorship and oppression again in 2008 when given the chance.

No telling if British Olympians will be required to offer a salute to the dictators in Beijing like their predecessors were seven decades ago.

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