While China and the International Olympic Committee have been pushing for the Games to be a neutral event, the political controversy and boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games began months before Friday’s opening ceremony.
But not everyone is immersed in politics.
Supporters of the boycott, including human rights groups, are calling on Beijing to take a hard line against anti-Beijing protesters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the predominantly Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region.
Yet analysts say many developing countries value economic ties with China, sending officials and athletes to stay in Beijing despite political differences.
Australia avoided sending government officials to the February 2 meeting. The 4-20 Games argue that China violates human rights and refuses to hold talks on trade and diplomatic disputes. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the decision in early December, becoming one of more than a dozen countries to declare a diplomatic boycott.
Most of the other countries that have resorted to diplomatic boycotts are like Australia – with a track record of concern over human rights in China and with enough wealth to fend off any economic retaliation. The United States announced a diplomatic boycott in December. Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and about 10 European countries follow. While government officials won’t participate, these countries still let their athletes compete in the Winter Olympics.
“In Europe, I think it’s very important, and in the U.S. and Australia, there are people who do care about human rights,” said Scott Harold, a Washington-based senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation research group. “It’s not just about hitting China with the big stick, it’s not an attempt to contain China’s rise. It’s actually in part to live up to the values that you say guide policy.”
In the event’s more than 100-year history, six summer or winter Olympics have withstood boycotts.
Beijing officials see the diplomatic boycott as an inappropriate mix of sports and politics. They vowed to retaliate against the United States in December.
2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
The U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Olympics “seriously violates the principle of political neutrality in sports established by the Olympic Charter, and the U.S. will pay the price,” state-run China Daily reported.
China has denied allegations of human rights abuses and described the reasons for some U.S. lawmakers’ calls for a diplomatic boycott as “full of lies and false information” and “based on ideological and political bias,” according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. acting.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Economic and regional connections
China’s economic clout has prevented some governments from boycotting, said James Gomez, regional director of the Bangkok-based think tank Asia Center. Developing countries, especially those in Asia and Africa, see China’s $15.6 trillion economy as an irreplaceable export market and source of direct investment.
“China is there, it’s big, so even though they may not mean it, we’re going to be good because in the diplomatic game, everyone is talking double-mouthed,” Gomez said. “So even though they might be politically aligned in different ways, they still don’t openly distance themselves from China.”
The Philippines, which has its own list of issues with China, has decided to send three officials to the Olympics with solo alpine skier Asa Miller.
Filipinos have had “little public discussion about whether to participate in the Olympics” this month, said Herman Kraft, a professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman University. Since 2012, there have been occasional ship-to-ship standoffs between Beijing and Manila over control of the resource-rich South China Sea.
“There may be some concerns about retaliation, but I think it’s more of a pre-emptive thing because they’re less interested in using the Olympics as a forum or stage where relations with China could actually be at risk,” Kraft said. Say.
Other Southeast Asian nations, including Malaysia and Vietnam, also compete with China for maritime sovereignty, but Malaysia has praised China for hosting the Olympics. Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter to Chinese officials wishing them a successful Winter Olympics, Vietnamese state media Nhân Dân reported.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said on Jan. 1 that “fear of further sanctions” may have contributed to South Korea’s reluctance to boycott the Olympics. 13 studies. China sanctioned South Korea after deploying a terminal high-altitude area defense anti-missile system in 2016, costing $15.7 billion in tourism alone, the study said.
The Beijing Olympics kicked off on Friday, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach present at the opening ceremony at the National Stadium.