Global fears of China’s authoritarian rise overshadow the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and are calling for a boycott.
Why it matters: By revealing human rights norms while claiming leadership of the international system, China is tearing the foundation on which global traditions such as the Olympic Games are based.
- Democratic governments are concerned that the admission of Beijing to the Olympics without protest will further entrench the authoritarianism of China inside and outside the country.
- The US and its partners are also concerned about the rise of China as a rival amid a growing sense of democratic vulnerability, which is advancing the 2022 Games with a new undercurrent of geopolitical fear.
Send the news: A coalition of 180 rights groups has called for a traditional boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, citing human rights violations against ethnic minorities in China.
- But the White House said on February 3 that the Biden government currently has no plans to boycott the games or move them to another country.
The Beijing Summer Games in 2008 were the first Olympic Games in China, and many Chinese people, at home and around the world, felt a tremendous sense of pride and patriotism. This enthusiasm provided the games with an unforgettable sense of joy and hope.
- The whole country mobilized for the event and held beautiful opening ceremonies and spared no expense in setting up new facilities.
- Western democracies had hoped that the Olympics would be a new era of democratic reform for China. In the short term, it seemed to work. China opens its doors to the world in the months leading up to the matches, giving journalists extraordinarily easy access.
Yes, but: Human rights advocates criticized China in 2008, citing China’s repression in Tibet and its support for Sudan amid the genocide in Darfur.
- During the torch relay before the games began, pro-Tibet activists staged demonstrations in more than a dozen cities around the world, while the Chinese quietly helped organize counter-protests.
- In a New York Times column entitled ‘China’s Olympics of China’ in January 2008, Nicholas Kristof writes that ‘Beijing, in exchange for access to Sudanese oil, financed, protected diplomacy and provided weapons for the first genocide in the 21st century. . ‘
Now China is actually committing genocide, not just one. In January, the US State Department ruled that the Chinese Communist Party’s continued policy of mass internment and forced assimilation of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang amounted to genocide.
- But unlike other regimes that have committed genocide in recent decades, including Myanmar and Rwanda, China is the second most powerful country in the world and is on track to catch up with the US economy within a decade.
- The leaders of Beijing are using the leverage of cow countries in silence, charging heavy costs to governments and organizations determined to protest against China, and making the appearance of global consent for its policies.
Several countries have boycotted the recent Olympics to protest against the host country, but there is also a precedent for the IOC itself. It banned South Africa from 1964 to 1988 because of its apartheid policies.
The whole picture: It’s harder than ever to get an Olympic boycott.
- Even if liberal democracies could organize one, such a response would underscore the fundamental paradox that China’s global swing is creating: Participate in China’s conditions, or withdraw and create smaller alternatives.
Although a full-fledged boycott of Beijing 2022 seems unlikely, some Uyghur and Tibetan advocacy groups are working together to call for a diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022.
- A diplomatic boycott would allow athletes to compete while blunting the gentle power that hosting an Olympics can bring.
What is happening: “The International Olympic Committee will not talk to you if you do not want the matches to take place. If you try to boycott the matches, broadcasters will not talk to you, athletes will not talk to you, sponsors win ‘tu to speak, “said Pete Irwin, a program officer for the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
- As a more realistic alternative, Irwin said, they are asking governments to make an easy choice not to send a high-ranking official to the games. ‘
The IOC itself is also facing ire. Mandie McKeown, executive director of the International Tibet Network, which also advocates a diplomatic boycott, told Axios she was “extremely disappointed” with the IOC for refusing to address China’s massive human rights abuses.
- In a July 2015 letter to the International Tibet Network in response to the group’s concerns, the IOC’s communications director wrote that “with regard to Beijing 2022, assurances have been given” regarding human rights, labor rights and the right to to argue.
- McKeown said she repeatedly asked the IOC to provide evidence that such assurances were made and what the assurance was exactly. The IOC never provided this information, McKeown said.
The conclusion: “The IOC knows that the Chinese authorities are arbitrarily detaining Uighurs and other Muslims, expanding state control and silencing numerous peaceful critics,” Sophie Richardson, director of Human Rights Watch China, said last week.
- “The failure to confront Beijing’s serious human rights violations in public makes a mockery of its own obligations and claims that the Olympic Games are a ‘force for good’.”