As a lifelong sports fan, I always looked forward to the competition and pageantry of the summer and winter Olympic Games, but not this year’s politicized version of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
I agree with Politico columnist Derek Robertson, who wrote that “the Beijing Games feel undeniably blah, utterly lacking in the warm, fuzzy global goodwill that is… the Olympics’ actual stated reason for existing,” but not now when the China Games are “perfectly in line with the impotent muddle that defines our politics.” I couldn’t have written it any better myself.
Not only are these political Games, they’re also COVID Games with China locking down athletes who test positive for the virus in isolation wards, which isn’t any fun for young athletes who like to mix, mingle and make new friends, if you know what I mean … and I’m sure you do.
I’m happy to report that despite NBC’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Beijing Games, TV viewership is down more than 40 percent from the worldwide audience that watched the 2018 Winter Games from Pyongchang, South Korea. As the Wall Street Journal reported, “Beijing’s Winter Olympics are taking place in a strictly contained bubble, with vigorous security, daily health monitoring and no interaction with the population at large. … This is a bubble, with a view through a pinhole.” Does that sound like fun, or what?
The totalitarian government of Communist China is providing “vigorous security” at the Games because Chinese officials don’t want anyone talking about unpleasant topics like the ongoing genocide against the Uyghur minority or massive human rights violations. Although the United States and several other western governments are boycotting the Games – government officials, not athletes – communist dictatorships are having a fine time at the Beijing Olympics along with the United Nations secretary general and the director of the World Health Organization. The lasting political image of these Games will be the smiling faces of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and his good friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is poised to invade Ukraine.
Everything is fake at the Beijing Olympics including the snow and the painted-on smiles of fat-cat officials. “We show the world that it is possible to be fierce rivals, while at the same time living peacefully and respectfully together,” said International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach as Chinese prison guards tortured dissident Uyghurs in detention camps. Meanwhile, large U.S. companies like Coca-Cola and sports organizations like the NBA play nice with China in order to protect their bottom lines, putting money above human rights.
As Nathaniel Taplin of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Companies that value social responsibility may be underestimating the risks of the Beijing Games.” He called China’s abysmal human rights record “an inconvenient truth,” and it sure is for American companies like Intel, P&G and Coca-Cola, which moved the baseball All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of alleged voter suppression, but remains silent when it comes to Chinese genocide. That’s why I’m boycotting Coca-Cola.
The NBA also remains silent because it has invested millions of dollars in Chinese basketball. Superstar Lebron James, who babbles about American “social justice” issues, doesn’t say a word about egregious human rights abuses in China. Only one NBA player, Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom, a devout Muslim who just became a proud American citizen, has the courage to speak out against Uyghur genocide. “What I’m doing is bigger than basketball,” he said. Amen.
That’s why I’m not watching what some human rights activists are calling the “Genocide Games,” because that’s what they are.
Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.
