Winters in Beijing are cold but beautiful, at least that’s what I recall from the one Christmas we celebrated there in 1997, see photo. Instead of candlelight, stuffed turkeys and vintage wines at home we had Tsingtao Beer and noodles in the hotel bar. It was one of the best Christmases ever.
Winters in Beijing are a hot item at the moment. The relentless stream of harrowing reports about the Uyghurs and the violation of the treaties that govern Hong Kong have made it clear that we can no longer treat China as a good or reliable partner. For the first time after decades of kowtowing and bending over because ‘trade’ we see cracks emerge in the international consensus over this. Canada is deep in the soup with two of its citizens held hostage as Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou faces legal extradition proceedings in Vancouver. All of this has contributed to leading opposition politicians now calling to move or boycott the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, scheduled for 2022. So, is it time to hold the Chinese leadership to a higher standard and spoil their party?
I have very mixed feelings about this. Sports boycotts never seem to yield any real progress, to the extent it can be measured. In fact the reverse may be true as it hardens positions on both sides. In 1978 in my native Holland the calls for boycotting the FIFA World Cup in Argentina were relentless and quite understandable as the ghastly regime of Jorge Videla tortured and murdered at will. Yet, as we know now, participating in the event (in which the Dutch bravely fought an unwinnable final against the hosts) did have its benefits. It focused the attention on the country and its people and while maybe providing a short-term ‘win’ for the ruling despots, the visitors had the opportunity to connect and engage with some of the suppressed. A new level of engagement was possible and in many cases the unheard voices of Argentinian suffering went global. In a moving documentary about ‘1978’ some former political prisoners argued that when locked up in their cells they could hear the chanting and roaring crowds in the soccer stadiums and it gave them a measure of hope and connection. It is also not clear how the Olympic boycotts in 1980 and 1984 (Americans not going to Moscow, Soviets not going to LA) contributed anything positive during a time when the Soviet internal collapse had already started. Maybe active engagement and Olympic participation would have accelerated the road to a free post-communist Russia.
So on balance, boycotts have limited value in helping to move the political dial forward and they unnecessarily hurt the athletes who generally have a limited opportunity to participate in Olympic events, a sporting life after all is short. On that note we should maybe go to Beijing and compete and make a political statement where possible. That said, China is not only committing the most egregious crimes against humanity, it has been overly aggressive in threatening those who have dared to call it out. And in that they are not only breaching diplomatic protocol, they are suppressing media, business and many international organizations (the WHO to name one) into an uncomfortable and dangerous form of submission.
The Uyghurs have been presented the bill of this relentless assault on human rights and freedom and the side effects are now palpable the world over. A steady and suffocating veil is blanketing the way we operate and communicate freely across borders, just look at how Apple and Google have been required to adapt and adjust to stay on the good side of China’s political leadership. This filters down all the way down to the US, Europe and Canada domestically where we see businesses, universities and even elected officials look the other way for fear of losing access to China. We cannot let that continue to happen. It erodes democracy at home and abroad and it leaves those in China that speak up in an even more precarious position.
If a full on boycott of the Olympics is the right tool remains to be seen. But at the very least we are now debating what is happening in China and it has started to put some pressure on a regime that has been getting away with a lot of things for far too long.