China Olympics Boycott

The Olympic Winter Games to be held early next year in China are turning into a highly politicised affair, with nations taking sides as per their geopolitical inclinations. Though the Games are supposed to be free from politics, this is obviously not the case. The showdown pitches China against the US and its acolytes, with the latter leading the charge for a diplomatic boycott of the multinational sporting event.

At the time of writing, the US, UK, Canada and Australia had decided to diplomatically boycott the Winter Games, though they will be sending their athletes. The reason? China’s “human rights abuses” against its Uyghur population in Xinjiang, as well as tensions over Taiwan and Hong Kong. Clearly, the boycott is a larger part of a Western move to isolate the People’s Republic, and sports is the latest area where China can be cornered.

Pakistan has responded well to the boycott calls, with the Foreign Office saying that this country “opposes any form of politicisation of sports”. Sporting boycotts are of course not new. The 1980 Moscow Summer Games were boycotted by the US and its allies, as well as a large number of Muslim states, to protest the Red Army’s invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier. The Eastern Bloc responded in kind, staying away from the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. These incidents indicate how closely geopolitics and sports are linked.

However, the bigger story here is that the US and China are on a collision course, with Cold War 2.0 playing out across the continents. The Olympics are part of this larger battle of wits. But first, for those who say sports and politics don’t mix, history suggests otherwise. The image of American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising the black power salute at the podium of the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City is one of the most iconic of the last century. Both men had raised their clenched fists to protest against the rampant racism in their homeland decades before athletes began taking a knee to call out racism and bigotry.

Moreover, the aforementioned Moscow and LA Games were used to make overtly political statements during the Cold War. Elsewhere, athletes and teams have boycotted Israel for its brutal treatment of the Palestinians on numerous occasions. So to say that politics and sports don’t mix may be ideal, but in practice geopolitics and sports are quite closely linked.

Getting back to the growing showdown between the West and China, expect more sabre-rattling and holier than thou statements from the Western Bloc as it tries to hem in the People’s Republic using a variety of pretexts. However, all free-thinking people of the world should ask themselves that if the US and its acolytes are so concerned about the human rights of the people of Xinjiang and other ‘vulnerable’ groups in China, why do these great champions of fundamental rights remain quiet when their geopolitical allies indulge in violent behaviour?

Take Israel — the darling of the West and a colonial settler state described as a dagger in the heart of the Arab world. The Israeli military machine butchers children with reckless abandon and mows down civilians in Palestine with not so much as a peep from the great and good in North America and Europe. Why no calls for the sporting, economic and cultural boycott of Israel from the champions of human rights in order to make it change its atrocious behaviour? Apparently, human rights, democracy and other such wonderful concepts only come in handy when dealing with geopolitical rivals. When friends butcher and maim, it’s all good apparently in Washington, London and Paris.

This is not to say all is well in China. There are definitely issues that need to be addressed, but this should be done in a manner that respects sovereignty. Moreover, those with blood on their hands should be the last to point out the faults of others.

Nations like Pakistan should resist attempts to hem in China, Russia and others that refuse to toe the Western/Nato line. While the non-aligned of the world should continue to maintain good relations with the US, Europe and other members of the Western Bloc, they should by no means become tools to counter China and others in the ‘axis of resistance’.

However, it is also true that the world appears to be headed for another Cold War, and there may well be chances of it developing into a ‘hot’ conflict if geopolitical temperatures do not cool down. Therefore, Pakistan and other states in its position must be willing to accept the consequences of saying ‘absolutely not’ to those who consider themselves the arbiters of power in today’s world. What is needed is internal unity, cohesion and national resolve to do the right thing and stand by our friends and allies.

Coming back to the Games, where the Olympics boycott goes, even many in the Western camp feel uneasy about it. For example France has called it “insignificant” while the European Union is also divided over the prospect. Clearly, there are rational actors in the international community that don’t want to get on the wrong side of Beijing.

Here’s to wishing China a successful Winter Games!

The writer is City Editor, Bol News