Global fears about China’s authoritarian rise are overshadowing the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and generating calls for a boycott.
Why it matters: By openly disrespecting human rights standards and at the same time claiming leadership of the international system, China is breaking the foundation on which global traditions, such as the Olympics, are based.
- Democratic governments fear that allowing Beijing to host the Olympics without protest would further strengthen China’s authoritarianism at home and abroad.
- The United States and its partners are also concerned about China’s rise as a rival amid a growing sense of democratic vulnerability, imbuing the 2022 Games with a new stream of geopolitical fear.
Driving the news: A coalition of 180 human rights groups called for a traditional boycott of the Beijing Olympics 2022, citing human rights abuses 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 support their transfer to another country.
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were China’s first Olympics, and many Chinese, both at home and around the world, felt an immense sense of pride and patriotism. This enthusiasm gave the games an unforgettable feeling of joy and hope.
- The whole country was mobilized for the occasion, performing impressive opening ceremonies and sparing no expense in the construction of new facilities.
- Western democracies expected the Olympics to mark a new era of democratic reforms for China. In the short term, it seemed to work. China opens its doors to the world in the months leading up to the games, allowing exceptionally easy access for journalists.
Yes but: Human rights defenders criticized China in 2008, citing China’s crackdown on Tibet and its support for Sudan amid the genocide in Darfur.
- During the torch relay before the games started, pro-Tibet activists organized protests in more than a dozen cities around the world, while the Chinese quietly helped organize counter-protests.
- In a January 2008 New York Times column entitled “China Genocide Olympics”, Nicholas Kristof wrote that “in exchange for access to Sudanese oil, Beijing is financing, diplomatically protecting and supplying weapons for the first 21st century genocide. “.
Now China is committing genocide, not just encouraging one. In January, the US State Department determined that the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing policies of mass internment and forced assimilation of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang amount 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 outperform the United States’ economy in a decade.
- Beijing’s leaders use this weight to silence countries, taking high costs from governments and organizations that are determined to protest against China and creating the appearance of global consent for their policies.
Several countries have boycotted the previous Olympics to protest against the host country, but there are also precedents for the IOC to act. He banned South Africa from 1964 to 1988 because of its apartheid policies.
The big picture: It is more difficult than ever for an Olympic boycott to gain strength.
- Even if liberal democracies could organize one, such a response would highlight the fundamental paradox that China’s global dominance is creating: either participate in China’s terms or withdraw and create smaller alternatives.
While a total boycott of Beijing 2022 seems unlikely, some Uighur and Tibetan defense groups are teaming up to call for a diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022.
- A diplomatic boycott would allow athletes to compete while dulling some of the soft power that hosting an Olympics can bring.
What is happening: “The International Olympic Committee will not speak to you if you don’t want the games to take place. If you are trying to boycott the games, broadcasters will not speak to you, athletes will not speak, sponsors will earn ‘I speak to you, “said Pete Irwin, program officer for the Uighur Human Rights Project.
- As a more realistic alternative, Irwin said, they are asking governments to “make an easy choice not to send a high-level official to the games”.
The IOC itself is also facing anger. Mandie McKeown, executive director of the International Tibet Network, which also advocates a diplomatic boycott, told Axios that she is “extremely disappointed” with the IOC for refusing to address massive human rights violations in China.
- In a July 2015 letter addressed to the Tibet International Network in response to the group’s concerns, the IOC’s communications director wrote that “with respect to Beijing 2022, guarantees have been provided” in relation to human rights, labor rights and the law of manifestation.
- McKeown said he repeatedly asked the IOC to provide evidence that such guarantees were made and what exactly those guarantees were. The IOC never provided that information, said McKeown.
The end result: “The IOC knows that Chinese officials are arbitrarily detaining Uighurs and other Muslims, expanding state surveillance and silencing numerous peaceful critics,” Human Rights Watch China director Sophie Richardson said last week.
- “His failure to publicly confront Beijing’s serious human rights violations scoffs at his own commitments and says the Olympics are a ‘force for good’.”