Beijing 2022: How might the Olympic boycott affect the already tense relationship between China and the United States?

“The fewer US officials come, the less viruses they will bring”. That’s how categorical -and sarcastic- the Government was Chino through its official newspaper, the “Global Times”, in response to the decision of USA to establish a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. “The United States will pay a price for its wrongdoing”said Zhao Lijian, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With this decision, sport once again served as an excuse for geopolitical objectives and economic interests.

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The threat of a boycott of the Games – which will be held in the Chinese capital next February – had been brewing since last June, when Democratic and Republican legislators indicated that the “Olympic spirit” could not be allowed to a country that, according to them, abuses systematically of human rights.

The examples from Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet and the recent case of tennis player Peng Shuai – who reported that she was sexually abused by a former prime minister and then disappeared from the public radar – are the arguments of the Joe Biden administration to punish China. , despite the fact that the president of the United States and his counterpart Xi Jinping They had a cordial dialogue a few weeks ago through a virtual summit.

Despite this, the tension between the great powers does not seem to have diminished and this boycott adds another line to the deteriorating relations.

“The relationship between the two will become more tense, but I don’t think it will be more than they anticipate. China is being offended, but it is a game for the public. The problem is in the economic competition between the two. If China were economically the same as 15 years ago we would not be talking about this boycott “Sports historian Jorge Illa, and professor at the UPC, comments to El Comercio.

The threat of a boycott of the Games – which will be held in Beijing in February 2022 – had been brewing since last June. EFE (ROMAN PILIPEY /)

Athletes yes, diplomats no

As indicated by the White House on Monday, the US government will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Olympic Games next year for “the genocide and crimes against humanity that persist in Xinjiang, as well as other human rights abuses “ in China.

“Both in the formal speech and in the responses on social networks, the Chinese have preferred not to give it so much importance for now and have made it clear that it is a form of malicious sabotage, but that it does not have to cloud the centrality of the event, that should focus on athletes “The Peruvian economist and expert on China, Marco Carrasco, points out to this newspaper.

“What the US is looking for is to affect the image of China before world public opinion and to make it clear that it is a dictatorship where human rights are not contemplated. However, the US did not think the same during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when China was not the threat that it is now for them. What is happening is that the US is in brutal economic competition with China, which is threatening its global economic and geopolitical supremacy. If it were not like that, they would not do this boycott ”, Illa adds.

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“If China makes attractive games to the world, it will look good, and that does not interest the United States. So they decide that we have to focus on human rights, which is an aspect in which China can look bad in the eyes of the public ”.

“For China, this event is significant because Beijing is going to become the first city to host some summer games (those of 2008) and these winter games, and they have been taking many precautions so that everything is guaranteed”, adds Carrasco, who is also a member of the Editorial Committee of the “Taihe Institute Observer”, an academic publication of the Taihe Institute think tank in Beijing.

US President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 15, 2021. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP) .

No real effects

The diplomatic boycott is basically a political decision that will not affect the competitions, since American athletes will attend Beijing.

Those who will not attend will be diplomatic representatives and authorities, who will not be in the boxes of the Beijing National Stadium during the opening and closing.

“Team USA athletes have our full support, and we will be supporting them from home, but we will not contribute to the fanfare of the Games.”said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Additionally, as the EFE agency recalls, the restrictions due to the pandemic will significantly limit the presence of authorities from the rest of the countries, as happened in the recent Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.

“A sports boycott would be inexcusable. We are not in the late 70s or living in the Cold War “Illa explains, recalling the boycotts of 1980 and 1984 when the United States and the Soviet Union did not attend the Olympic jousts organized by their rivals.

“It would be unthinkable for the United States delegation to withdraw completely from the sports competition. It is something symbolic on the side of the United States, and we have to wait how much the wave grows, but on the side of China they are seeing it more as a tantrum from Washington “reflects Carrasco.

For the historian, once the competitions begin, all the focus will be on the athletes. “More than this diplomatic boycott, there could be more repercussion if an athlete makes a gesture in defense of Chinese ethnic minorities or in favor of Tibet, or something else sensitive for the Chinese, because that does remain to be remembered”he adds.

The most significant gesture of protest of the Olympic Games occurred in Mexico in 1968 when two American athletes raised their fists to protest against racism in their country. (AP Photo / File) (NOINFORMATION /)

History of the Olympic boycotts

Spain did not participate. Ireland did not attend because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted that its athletes should join that of the Irish Free State.

The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland refused to assist because of the Soviet repression during the Hungarian revolution of 1956.

Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon did not do it because of the Sinai War; and China because Taiwan was allowed to compete.

24 African countries, in addition to Guyana and Iraq, protested the apartheid policy in South Africa. Taiwan also did not attend the IOC due to pressure from China.

It was one of the most significant boycotts. The United States did not attend the Games organized by the Soviet Union. The decision was supported by 65 other countries arguing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union and 14 of its Iron Curtain allies boycotted the American games, in response to what happened in 1980.

North Korea did not attend, arguing that games should be held jointly on the Korean peninsula.

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