Nagy: Beijing's two Olympics are as different as day and night
In 2008, shortly before China hosted the Summer Olympics, I had an opportunity to visit Beijing and other cities, with a Texas Tech University delegation seeking to expand ties with Chinese universities. At that time China was the “flavor of the month,” as U.S. universities competed fiercely to attract Chinese students and faculty, to establish institutional partnerships and to host “Confucius Institutes” – Chinese Government-funded centers on U.S. campuses to promote Chinese language and culture.
I remember how incredibly impressed our group was with what we saw and how we were received. Beyond the gleaming new towers and futuristic infrastructure – like the massive “bird nest” stadium built just for the Olympics – the positivity of a society making incredible progress was palpable. Our Chinese interlocutors were open, willing to discuss just about any topic, and eager to increase engagement with the U.S. at all levels. These individual attitudes also reflected the global optimism of the day about overall relations, with U.S. President George W. Bush on hand for the Olympics’ opening ceremonies. We and our western partners expected that China would continue on an upward trajectory toward economic and political openness and adherence to the rules-based international system and join us as partners in an ever-liberalizing globe.
Alas, how mistaken we all were. Fast forward 13 years and the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics bears little resemblance to the China of 2008. The promise of China becoming a globally responsible major power has been replaced by the reality of an arrogant and aggressive bully with a monumental chip on its shoulder, throwing its weight around the region and intimidating trading partners near and far, who don’t toe its line. In 2008, China spent $58 billion on its military; in 2021 it was about $210 billion. Worse still, China has embarked on a sophisticated strategy to remake the rules-based global system which allowed it to prosper so quickly, with its own China-centric mercantilism. China brags that its international actions are based on the “win, win” principle; the truth is that in all things it pursues, “China wins.” The former Soviet Union may have originated the “Big Lie,” but China is taking it to a whole new level through modern technology and social media manipulation.
Just as China’s foreign policy has evolved into a pursuit for global primacy, it’s domestic activities now resemble the frightful world of George Orwell’s 1984. No society has ever exercised the level of snooping and control over its citizens as China does today. And President Xi is not only encouraging the adoration of his citizens through a cult of personality which rivals that of Mao Zedong, but this year’s Party Congress will likely grant him a permanent presidency. While the 2022 Olympics will have no international fans, unlike the 300,000 who came in 2008, the 3,000 plus athletes and participants will get a taste of the Chinese government’s “control freak” approach. Participants have been warned to follow all “Chinese laws and regulations...” (meaning no politically provocative acts or statements) or face punishment.
And, unlike 2008, neither the U.S. nor a number of other like-minded nations will be represented at the opening ceremonies. This “diplomatic boycott” is meant to highlight the responsible world’s revulsion over China’s brutalizing its several million majority-Muslim Uyghurs. Add to that China’s mistreatment of Tibetans, squeezing out any remaining vestiges of Hong Kong’s democracy, and threatening Taiwan’s freedom, and you have multiple reasons to question why China was even awarded these Olympics.
But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not known for having a backbone, and Xi’s 2022 winter spectacular will no doubt go down in history as a match to Hitler’s propaganda-rich 1936 Berlin event. To highlight the IOC’s hypocrisy, according to its own website, “At all times the IOC recognizes and upholds human rights, as enshrined in both the Fundamental Principles of the Olympic Charter and the IOC Code of Ethics...” For sure, the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs being “re-educated” in China’s gulags appreciate that!
Ambassador Tibor Nagy was most recently Assistant Secretary of State for Africa after serving as Texas Tech’s Vice Provost for International Affairs and a 30-year career as a US Diplomat.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Tibor Nagy Beijing's two Olympics are as different as day and night
