World leaders reluctant to boycott event hosted by 'genocidal' regime - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15199462
The Guardian wrote:West weighs up costs of boycotting China’s Winter Olympics

Boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics in February may seem a simple, symbolic diplomatic gesture – when put alongside the allegations of labour camps in Xinjiang province and the apparent sexual exploitation of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai – but such is the contemporary economic power of China that the step will only be taken after much agonising.

The threats and economic boycotts that Australia, Canada and more recently Lithuania have suffered at the hands of the Chinese for challenging Beijing’s authority in one way or another are not experiences other countries will want to copy lightly.

The west has always argued that its secret weapon against China is the strength of its alliances. China, by contrast, has no friends. So if a boycott is to happen – by, for instance, withdrawing ambassadors, royalty and ministers from the ceremonial events – countries will want to know that the big players in the G7 economies are signed up.

An incoherent response will only underline the west’s lack of resolve. At the moment, Joe Biden has said he is considering a boycott. That seemed surprising, because after his three-hour phone call with Xi Jinping last week, the short-term trajectory of US relations with China seemed to be towards greater contact, albeit guarded.

Kurt Campbell, the Indo-Pacific director at the national security council, in an address last week placed great emphasis on establishing lines of communication with Beijing. He also said that as China became ever more centralised, a premium would be placed on relations between the two presidents.

With issues such as freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, the independence of Taiwan, suppression in Hong Kong, or China’s unexpected advance in hypersonic nuclear missiles in play, it may seem unwise to offend Beijing over relatively trivial issues such as the number of US dignitaries that go to watch John Shuster competing to retain his gold for US curling in 2018.

These slights are taken very seriously in nationalist China – and if Beijing has shown one trait recently, it is its determination to retaliate if it feels it has been treated unfairly.

Since it regards the Olympic Games as “a rite of passage for China as a mature major power”, it has been working the diplomatic circuit successfully to gain support. The leaders of the G20 at their meeting in Rome jointly declared they “look ahead to Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics 2022, as opportunities for competition for athletes from around the world, which serves as a symbol of humanity’s resilience”.

But amid the fallout over Peng, there is a renewed US political constituency led by Republican figures such as Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz that favours a complete boycott by sports stars, not just officials. It is hard for the Democrat administration to declare a genocide under way in Xinjiang, and then say “let the Games commence”. Much will depend on whether further convincing evidence emerges of Peng’s state of mind.

A swing vote is likely to be Germany, which under Angela Merkel was the lead European investor in China and lead advocate of engagement. Merkel has said the Olympics issue is for the next government: if the Greens claim the foreign ministry as forecast, the Olympics will be an early test of who makes the foreign policy decisions in the coalition.

But what may drive governments these days is the opinions of star athletes, with their huge social media followings and relative immunity from Chinese threats. As long as the issue is one of solidarity with a fellow athlete, the stars will push sports diplomacy in the direction of confrontation with China.

That will put pressure on the commercial sponsors, although few at this late stage are likely to withdraw. The fear of China’s power in the commercial sector was underscored by a recent Axios report revealing the Marriott hotel in Prague had turned down a chance to host the World Uyghur Congress, allegedly for fear of offending Beijing.

The UK, with one economic engine gone missing due to Brexit, is not keen to lose the other through Chexit, at least until other markets have been established in south-east Asia. Johnson secured few favours from the Chinese at Cop26 on the climate crisis, but his natural stance is to oppose sports boycotts as self-defeating. His instinct is that sports diplomacy should help, not hinder, relations.

In a report this year, the all-party Commons foreign affairs select committee proposed a nuanced package including: “The government should suggest the British Olympic Association does not participate in the opening or closing ceremonies, beyond one representative carrying the union flag. It should abstain from sending government officials to any ceremonies or functions, strongly discourage UK businesses from sponsoring or advertising at the Olympics, encourage fans and tourists to stay away, and discourage athletes from supporting or accepting the Chinese government’s propaganda efforts while in-country.”

In its response in November, the government committed to nothing. Similarly, it said an urgent review started on 12 January of export controls as they applied specifically to Xinjiang had not yet finished its “urgent work”.

Johnson will want to pick his fights with China, and despite a vociferous backbench lobbying group and a foreign secretary in Liz Truss inclined to rattle cages, it will be a surprise if the British are first in line to propose a substantial boycott.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... r-olympics

What's the point of declaring a genocide if you're not willing to act on that declaration? It seems if you want to oppress a minority or employ slaves to build your venues (Qatar) then go for it. Any condemnation you receive will be no more than weak words devoid of substance.
#15200073
Igor Antunov wrote:-kill millions of Muslims, continue killing Muslims every day
-propagandize fake genocide news about China
-cry crocodile tears for Muslims in China

Projection is a hell of a drug. The US needs to be destroyed asap. Disgustaaaang.

#15200091
So what are they saying now. that its OK for Apple, the biggest market cap (along with Microsoft) to live hand in glove with the Chinese government, but if someone jumps into a toboggan for 2 minutes, they become responsible for genocide. Every slalom swerve, every triple axel will mark the death of all hope for the East Kazakhstan people.
#15200100
Rich wrote:So what are they saying now. that its OK for Apple, the biggest market cap (along with Microsoft) to live hand in glove with the Chinese government, but if someone jumps into a toboggan for 2 minutes, they become responsible for genocide. Every slalom swerve, every triple axel will mark the death of all hope for the East Kazakhstan people.

No-one is going to go after Apple or Microsoft or Google and the like. Their pockets are too deep. But Olympic athletes? Bunch of poverty-stricken losers. And therefore fair game.
#15200178
A diplomatic boycott will send a strong message to Beijing, if it needs to be punished. The United States and the United Kingdom will not send high-level government officials to the Games and other European nations should join the diplomatic boycott as well. There is no need to punish Olympic athletes over alleged human rights abuses in China.



A potential diplomatic boycott hangs over the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing 10 weeks ahead of the opening ceremonies.

The United States and the United Kingdom have said they are considering not sending high-level government officials to the Games in protest against ongoing human rights abuses in China. Calls for other countries to do the same are growing louder.

"We will see non-governmental organizations speaking out more intensively in the coming months, increasing the pressure on national governments," Jürgen Mittag, a sports policy expert at the German Sports University in Cologne, tells DW.

https://www.dw.com/en/beijing-olympics- ... a-59944953
#15200193
What Rich said.

There is really nothing the rest of the world can do about Chinese abuses except empty symbology like this. Nevertheless it is something I suppose. It will have no affect on Chinese behavior but it will make the rest of us feel oh so righteous.

By the way world. Men want power so they can trade it for sex. Is this really a blinding news flash to everyone?
#15200242
Just to add. I think Carter / Reagan's deployment of cruise missiles in Europe was a very good thing. I also think Reagan's invasion of Grenada was a good thing. So I don't think I can be accused of being a Soviet fellow traveller, but I had absolute contempt for the 1980 boycott of the Moscow Olympics. Going to a sporting event does not mean we are endorsing the military, foreign or internal polices of the host country. Its utterly absurd. Attending the Los Angeles Olympics didn't mean one was endorsing the invasion of Grenada. I've said it before but I'll say it again, identity politics and vapid virtue signalling is certainly not an invention of the modern left.
#15200272
AFAIK wrote:What's the point of declaring a genocide if you're not willing to act on that declaration?

It would probably be easier to make the case for a boycott if the government could get buy-in from well know professional sports heroes.

I would suggest that the USA olympic team solicit the "anti-genocide" opinions of players for teams like the Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins and Atlanta Braves.

USA Today wrote:...Baseball’s Boston Braves adopted their team name in 1912. The Cleveland Indians took theirs in 1915. Scores of high schools and colleges across the country assumed these and other Indian team names in the 1920s and 1930s, even as so-called civilization regulations forbade Native Americans to speak their languages, practice their religions or leave their reservations.

This meant real American Indians could not openly perform ceremonial dance at a time when painted-up pretend ones could prance on sidelines, mocking the religious rituals of what a dominant white culture viewed as a vanishing red one.
#15200582
Boycotting this event is stupid. It's a sporting event and most of the spectators are going to be regular Chinese people.

You won't boycott Chinese products and services with it will you?

Half-assed pussy boycott.

At least wait until McDonalds China announces their "If the CCP wins gold, you get free Burgers" competition.

Diplomatic boycott will send a strong message to Beijing, if it needs to be punished. The United States and the United Kingdom will not send high-level government officials to the Games and other European nations should join the diplomatic boycott as well. There is no need to punish Olympic athletes over alleged human rights abuses in China


Did the 2008 Torch Relay protests achieve anything in the long run? Nope, it just made the protestors look like idiots.

All Beijing will do is take plenty of photos of Xi hanging out with Putin and both of them laughing and having lots of fun.

It will be considered a complete success with some moronic boycotting/protesting idiots trying to ruin the party at the very beginning.
#15200584
I have the same attitude to Beijing as I did with Moscow and LA. Sport should be set aside from politics. Athletes have trained their entire lives to compete and they alone should decide what actions they should take. It shouldn't be up to a federation to do that for them. If an Athlete believes their withdrawal is worth the message it sends then fine. If not, that's fine as well.

What I guess should happen instead is that the IOC has an ethics and moral initiative that nations must satisfy in order for a nation to set up a bid in the future. And that is laymen for saying that successful bids should be adhered to and future bids should have more robust scrutiny.
#15201245
Deutschmania wrote: The United States did however boycott the 1980 Olympics , held in the U.S.S.R. , for all that it accomplished .


The US have boycotted their diplomats for symbolism but retained their athletes. The issue of course is this is a sporting event that happens every four years and who are you ultimately punishing? I don't see this Olympics being used as propaganda in any case. The world seems more interested in China than China has with the rest of the world. It will be used to show case China's growth though. And their history. Holding a games doesn't really hold that much purpose like it did in 1936. The IOC makes sure of that. So I don't know what more you are expecting except fireworks.

Nonetheless I find it ironic the USs position given the human rights abuses in Guantanamo. I wonder if China will reciprocate with not sending delegates for Los Angeles for what happens in Cuba? I expect so. Unfortunately the US does always have a problem at looking away from home rather than within the territory and as such loses moral credibility sometimes.
#15201825
B0ycey wrote:I find it ironic the USs position given the human rights abuses in Guantanamo.

Yes, but that is democratic TM torture.

Copywriting the democracyTM brand was the smartest thing that the USA's founding hedgefund managers ever did.
Last edited by QatzelOk on 10 Dec 2021 16:55, edited 1 time in total.
#15201827
B0ycey wrote: Unfortunately the US does always have a problem at looking away from home rather than within the territory and as such loses moral credibility sometimes.


As a Hongkonger I find China more on the butt of this than the United States.
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