Olympics: Should we boycott Beijing?

Joe Biden is going for gold in “geopolitical jousting,” said Stephen Collinson in CNN.com. The United States is reportedly ready to “mount a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics” in protest of China’s many human rights abuses. Biden still plans to send American athletes to February’s Games, but would pull the entire official U.S. diplomatic delegation, thereby depriving Chinese leader Xi Jinping of “some of the glory of hosting the world’s top leaders at a glittering gathering.” A diplomatic boycott is the least Biden can do, said Jim Geraghty in NationalReview.com. China has locked Uighur Muslims in genocidal re-education camps, blocked investigations into the origins of Covid-19, “cracked down further on Hong Kong,” and “disappeared” tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a former vice premier of sexual assault (see International, p.15). “What more does the Biden administration need to see?”

What a “worthless” gesture, said Ilya Somin in Reason.com. A few absent American politicians won’t stop the Games from being “a propaganda showcase for the Beijing regime.” If the Biden administration wants to protest, it should “mount a real boycott” and pull its athletes from the Olympics. A U.S. boycott would likely be joined by allied countries, instantly “undermining the quality of competition.” This would threaten sponsorships and TV revenue and make Beijing “pay a real price for its actions.”

Given China’s genocidal behavior, “how did Beijing wind up being selected for the 2022 Games?” asked Jason Linkins in TheNew Republic.com. Simple: No democratic country wanted to host. The world has finally figured out that the IOC “treats the residents of host nations as dispensable,” displacing residents to make way for white-elephant stadiums and running up billions in cost overruns. So now it’s mostly corrupt autocracies who want the Games, seeing them as a public relations platform to whitewash their image. Sponsors shouldn’t participate in that charade, said Fred Hiatt in The Washington Post. The Uighur people of western China are “being slowly, deliberately erased,” but the IOC’s deep-pocketed corporate partners want us to “pretend it’s not happening.” Coca-Cola boasts on its website of being the IOC’s longest continuous sponsor because they share the “same core values of friendship, respect, inclusion, integrity, and excellence.” This February, they’re asking us to ignore the genocide, “grab a Coke, and enjoy the Games.”