How we can use hockey at next Games to woo China
Next Winter Olympics holds the key, Adil Sayeed says.
Canadians returned disappointed from two trips to East Asia in the past three months. Our men’s hockey team finished third at the Korea Olympics after winning gold at the two previous Winter Games. Canadian hockey fans’ Olympian letdown was matched by Canadian business leaders’ dismay when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ended his China mission in December with no agreement to start trade deal talks. (We’ll get to disappointments arising from his even more recent, South Asian, trip a bit later).
A majority of Canadians view China unfavourably. To allay Canadians’ suspicions of doing business with China, Trudeau asked for symbolic references to environmental, gender and labour standards in any China deal. China rebuffed Trudeau on the grounds that Canada, with 37 million people, cannot dictate even symbolic terms to a global power with a population of 1.4 billion.
Trudeau should relaunch trade talks after rebuilding his working relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping on other issues. A good project to start with would be a joint effort to resolve the financial impasse between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the National Hockey League (NHL) that prevented Canada’s best hockey players from going to the Korea Olympics.
Beijing will host the next Winter Olympics in 2022. President Xi has staked national prestige on staging a successful Olympics. The men’s hockey gold-medal match is the closing event at every Winter Games. If the biggest NHL stars play in a 2022 final pitting Canada against the United States or Russia, a worldwide television audience leading into the closing ceremony would be the final jewel crowning Xi’s Olympics.
The Korea Olympics were a TV ratings flop. Viewers of men’s hockey games fell 30 per cent in the lucrative U.S. market compared to 2014,
A working relationship with China that starts with Olympic hockey could be the opening that Canada needs to restore trade talks.
when NHL stars played. The IOC needs a successful China Olympics to protect the value of broadcasting rights for future Games.
Meanwhile, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sees China as an “exciting, interesting opportunity that, based on the sheer magnitude of the market, can’t be and shouldn’t be ignored.” To win concessions from the IOC and NHL Players’ Association, Bettman may bluff boycotting another Olympics. But with NHL owners lusting after the Chinese market, Bettman will likely eventually agree to send his players to Beijing in 2022.
The Canadian government could put a quick end to hockey fans’ fears about the next Olympics. If Trudeau asks for President Xi’s help, Canadian and Chinese diplomats could work to bring the NHL and IOC together on a win-win deal well before the 2022 Games.
Canada’s foreign policy mandarins might grumble about being drafted to work on this seemingly frivolous issue. However, historians recall “ping pong diplomacy” when U.S. President Nixon’s 1972 trip to Beijing was preceded by a tour of Communist China by American table tennis players.
A working relationship with China that starts with Olympic hockey could be the opening that Canada needs to restore trade talks. And strong ties with China are even more important after Trudeau’s trip to India soured relations with Asia’s other rising economic power.
Eighty per cent of Canadians view hockey as part of Canadian culture and over half are active fans. Co-operation on Olympic hockey would improve China’s image in Canada. Teaming with Xi to save Olympic hockey would help Trudeau sell a China trade deal to Canadians. And with Canada-China trade talks back on track, U.S. President Donald Trump might feel less free to bully Trudeau in NAFTA renegotiations.