Let’s see the Beijing Games for what they are: a stage for a rising global hegemony with serious human-rights problems and a democracy on a ventilator
Less than a month before the Beijing Winter Olympics begin, the Games are a massive political thicket. China is earning global condemnation for its human-rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang Province, what Human Rights Watch calls “crimes against humanity”. The Chinese cities of Xi’an and Yuzhou are in lockdown after experiencing the largest Covid-19 outbreak that the country has seen since the early days of the pandemic. The National Hockey League yanked its players from the Games in light of coronavirus concerns. Olympic qualifying events are in disarray, wracked by positive Covid cases. A diplomatic boycott by the US, Australia, Britain and Canada has only added to the mayhem.
When the Biden administration announced its diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games, a spokesperson from China’s foreign ministry responded that the Olympics were “not a stage for political posturing and manipulation”, adding that the boycott was “a grave travesty of the spirit of the Olympic charter” and “a blatant political provocation”.
