[The Epoch Times, February 21, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Song Tang comprehensive report) In recent years, a term has emerged, namely “sports washing” (sportswashing), by holding grand sports events such as the Olympic Games, attracting people’s attention Focusing on the superb skills of athletes, beautiful venues, grand narratives, etc., it ignores a series of evil acts that persecute human rights and beliefs.
The slogan of the Beijing Winter Olympics is “Together to the Future”, which is to pursue “the common goal of unity, peace, progress and inclusiveness”, trying to divert attention through the Winter Olympics and “whitewash” the abuse of human rights and other evils.
In fact, the two Olympic Games in Beijing did not improve human rights and freedom of the press in the slightest. The CCP used the Olympic Games to further expand its monitoring and suppression tools. In fact, the Beijing Winter Olympics is a “political Olympics”, “the Olympics censorship” and “the Olympics that persecute human rights”. The CCP’s calculus of using the Winter Olympics to “whitewash sports” has failed.
1. The Beijing Winter Olympics’ political show and disregard for human rights
Article 1 of the basic principles of the Olympic Charter states that “Olympism is a philosophy of life that comprehensively improves and unifies people’s physical, will and spiritual qualities”. The essence of the Olympic movement is to use sports as a The media, to achieve the improvement of individual life spirit, have nothing to do with politics.
As we all know, all spiritual sports are dangerous to the CCP. Anything that stands out in society has become the CCP’s asset. The CCP has successfully turned sports into politics. Chinese athletes are indeed like a marionette in the hands of the CCP. .
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the CCP government specially arranged for Uyghur cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang to serve as the main torchbearer, trying to cover up the human rights persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, but it was self-defeating. Instead, it is reminiscent of the Olympic Games held by Hitler in Nazi Germany in 1936.
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Nazi Germany allowed Helene Mayer, an athlete of Jewish descent, to represent Germany in an effort to quell international pressure. In the competition, Helen Maya won the individual women’s fencing silver medal and gave the Nazi salute when accepting the award. Similarly, after participating in the first game, Yilamujiang did not dare to answer any questions from foreign media. He only accepted an exclusive interview with the CCP National Radio, expressing his gratitude for being entrusted with the heavy responsibility of the torchbearer.
The Olympic Charter is the constitution of the Olympic Games. Its basic principles include “respect for the basic moral principles of the world” and “care for the maintenance of human dignity” in the second article. In a sense, this is a universal value. It is the foundation on which politics is built.
In March 2020, the IOC Human Rights Policy report stated: “The core of human rights is to value and ensure personal dignity. Respect for human dignity is the foundation of the IOC’s values and mission to advance Olympism.” And in 2017 announced in February 2018 that it had amended the host city contract to add human rights principles to prevent human rights abuses by future Olympic hosts.
But the “gentlemen’s agreement” of the International Olympic Committee has absolutely no effect on the CCP. Before the start of the Olympics, the Chinese authorities warned foreign athletes against “any behavior or speech” that violated “Chinese laws and regulations.”
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that Global Athlete, an international sports organization, recently said in a statement: “Without security assurances from the International Olympic Committee or the Chinese authorities, We strongly advise athletes not to talk about human rights issues in China.” “Peng Shuai’s disappearance is a clear example of the risk of athletes speaking out.”
Some athletes at this Winter Olympics can only comment on China’s human rights issues after returning home. Swedish speed skater Nils van der Poel, who won two gold medals at the Winter Olympics, said after returning home, “The Olympics are very meaningful, it’s a wonderful sporting event that brings the world and the country here. Reunited. But so did Hitler before the invasion of Poland (hosting the Olympics), and Russia did the same (hosting the Olympics) before the invasion of Ukraine. I think giving it (the right to host the Olympics) to a country that blatantly violate human rights like the CCP regime, is Very irresponsible.”
He continued: “I really think it’s scary. But I don’t think I should say too much about it, we still have a team in China.”
German athlete Natalie Geisenberger, who also won two gold medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics, said after her return to China that she was asked by the media about human rights in China after winning the gold in China last week. Time and place, she will wait until she leaves to comment on China.
After Geisenberg returned to China, on February 16, he said in a talk show on “Germany 2nd Television” (ZDF) that because of her family’s hard work for her, and whether it was human rights or environmental issues at the venue, it was impossible to go or not to go. Nothing can be changed. She finally decided to participate in the competition, and after completing the task, she will go home and “will never go to China again.”
2. The Olympic Games became an excuse for human rights persecution
For the CCP, the Olympics have instead become a pretext for “maintaining stability” and “persecuting human rights.” In other words, the Olympics give the CCP an opportunity to improve its mass surveillance and suppression tools. Before and after the two Olympic Games in Beijing, the CCP significantly escalated its repression of believers and ethnic minorities.
On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there was no large-scale human rights persecution in Xinjiang at that time, and the main targets of the persecution were Falun Gong practitioners and Tibetans.
Canadian producer Caylan Ford and prominent human rights lawyer David Matas co-authored “Open your eyes to the CCP’s repressive machine” on the website of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a Canadian think tank, last October. ” (Keeping our eyes open to China’s machinery of repression), the article reviews:
“2008 marked the 10th year of the Communist Party’s massive eradication campaign against Falun Gong, … Human Rights Monitors cited reports from Falun Gong practitioners and their families that on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, more than 8,000 Falun Gong practitioners were in Detained in the pre-Olympics crackdown, at least 100 people have reportedly died from abuse in custody. The persecution has sometimes occurred within walking distance of Olympic venues and major landmarks. These include 42-year-old folk musician Yu Zhou, who He died in custody 11 days after being arrested for possessing prohibited Falun Gong materials (his widow, an artist named Xu Na, was arrested before the 2022 Olympics, and the CCP wanted to falsely accuse him).”
According to Minghui.com, the document “Zhangjiakou Public Security Bureau’s 2020 Departmental Budget Information Disclosure” involves increased funding for the 2022 Winter Olympics security work. Among them, the column of “National Security Special Work Fund” shows that Falun Gong is listed as the first target.
The document shows that the Zhangjiakou Public Security System “budgets 481.213 million yuan in revenue and expenditure in 2022, an increase of 5.1% over the previous year’s budget.”
The main reason for the increase in the budget is: “According to the requirements of the overall development plan of the city’s public security, in order to do a good job in the security work of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in 2022, new funds will be added for the Winter Olympics security big data construction project, public security video surveillance project funds and police auxiliary personnel. Funding, etc.” The document mentioned: 18.252 million yuan was spent to build a video image information platform and 3,680 new surveillance cameras; 16.4213 million yuan is planned to be invested in the construction of the Winter Olympics security big data center in 2022.
Minky Worden, director of global advocacy at Human Rights Watch, said that since 2008, China’s domestic human rights situation has “significantly worsened” and that China “is in the midst of the worst human rights violations since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.”
The German Bundestag has written a report assessing the development of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the human rights situation in China. Green Party politician Margarete Bause, one of the report’s authors, said: “It was very naive and irresponsible to listen to the irresponsible promises made by the Chinese sponsors to improve human rights. The human rights situation has not improved at all, it has gotten worse.”
Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Tibet has stopped allowing foreigners to enter. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the CCP also used the 9/11 attacks in the United States to characterize the Uyghur protests as a terrorist threat and to justify its mass incarceration.
Many human rights incidents in China that the international community is currently paying attention to happened after the 2008 Summer Olympics. Amnesty International released a 160-page report in June titled, “Like We Are Enemies at War”: China’s Mass Internment, Torture and Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang, by the human rights group under detention Testimony of survivors of the camp, the report covers the CCP’s mass arbitrary detention of Uighurs, family separation, forced labor, torture, sexual violence, reproductive rights violations, and cultural and religious obliteration.
3. News censorship is getting worse
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the international community still has expectations for the CCP, and the CCP has at least made some efforts to save face. For example, between January 1, 2007 and October 17, 2008, foreign journalists were allowed to cover and report almost anywhere in China. , although the “New York Times” reporter David Barboza wrote a long report titled “Media Freedoms Under Assault in China Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games” (Media Freedoms Under Assault in China Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games), exposing the CCP Attacks and interference with foreign journalists.
At this Winter Olympics, journalists are all confined to the bubble within the “closed loop” and have no chance to go out for interviews, making the situation even worse.
During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on February 4, Dutch Public Radio (NOS) reporter Sjoerd den Daas was pushed and shoved away by a Chinese plainclothes wearing a red armband during the live broadcast, forcing him to interrupt Live, this scene stunned the Dutch female anchor in the studio.
Katri Lynpera, a Finnish cross-country skier, posted on Instagram that the Olympic Village athlete’s room was leaking and turned into a “water curtain hole”, which Chinese officials demanded to delete.
Reporting in and about China faces “unprecedented” challenges, the Foreign Correspondents Association in China (FCCC) said in its annual report released ahead of the Olympics.
Deutsche Welle reported that 99 percent of the more than 100 foreign journalists who participated in the survey said they believed that working conditions in China did not meet international standards. Almost half of respondents said they were unable to bring more journalists into China because authorities delayed visa approvals, leaving offices understaffed. Of those who visited the Xinjiang region in 2021, 88 percent said they were clearly being followed at the time, and 34 percent of reporters said they were asked to delete their data. The Foreign Media Correspondents’ Club also pointed out that state-sponsored online harassment activities have also made it more difficult for foreign journalists to report.
In January this year, a report titled “Beijing Olympic Games, 2021 Review, CCP’s Global Public Opinion Manipulation Strategy” (Chinese version) released by Freedom House said that when Beijing was preparing for the Olympic Games, which will open on February 4, At the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Chinese Communist Party leadership will activate the world‘s most sophisticated information control machine, using censorship, surveillance and legal reprisals to curb political, religious and other discourse that deviates from the party’s line.
This information-controlled machine has grown dramatically since Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics. For the seventh year in a row, the Chinese government has been the world‘s worst infringer of internet freedom, scoring only a poor 10 on a 100-point scale.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also prepared a security advisory for journalists, urging them to bring clean personal devices to China, open new email accounts for use while traveling, and “assume your hotel room is under surveillance” ,” and “Avoid installing the Chinese WeChat app…as it may collect large amounts of data, including text messages and calls”.
The CPJ also warned reporters against using unofficial virtual private networks (VPNs), noting that “access to unlicensed VPNs may be used against you if officials want to find an excuse to punish you”.
The report also mentioned that even if the CCP and its information control agencies did not take actions during the Games, there would be plenty of opportunities to retaliate after the Games. For example, journalists reporting on abuses by the Chinese government may be denied renewals, or Chinese nationals who work as translators or news assistants for foreign media may face criminal charges.
Bloomberg News Associate Haze Fan, for example, has faced criminal charges since December 2020. Athletes, coaches and other attendees who are leaving may also begin to expose those under pressure to self-censor and have unpleasant encounters with the Chinese police state once they feel more free to speak.
Responsible editor: Lin Yan#