The night of August 8th, 2008 was a night that no Chinese will ever forget. I remember my family gathered around the television as they watched the magnificent open ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, exclaiming in ecstasy like we are celebrating a festival. From signing the Treaty of Nanjing which ceded the territory of Hong Kong to Britain to rising to become a superpower in the international world, China has a checkered history that can easily appeal to the patriotism of its citizens. Successfully holding the Olympics was China’s declaration to the world that, as my grandfather said with tears of joy: “Our country has stood up!”
More than a decade later, China has become even more powerful politically and economically, and Beijing became the only city in the world that held both summer and winter Olympics. However, the 2022 winter Olympics led to more drama than the 2008 summer Olympics, which was ignited by the long-standing debate on China’s authoritarianism and suspected human rights violations. Countries, including the US, UK, and Canada, have declared a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, citing the Chinese government’s prosecution of the Muslim population in Xinjiang province. It seems that no one doubts the fact that China has “stood up,” but the means by which such victory was achieved — deprivation of civil rights, free speech, etc.— is greatly despised by the western world. Nevertheless, the Chinese government’s reaction to the boycott was assertive as always, claiming that the human rights crisis in Xinjiang and Hong Kong are “internal affairs” and other countries have no right to interfere— a speech that the Chinese diplomats frequently use in a controversial issue like this. The Beijing Olympics has started as planned, and the enthusiasm among the Chinese remains high, as does the concern among athletes from some other countries— who have been advised to use burner phones in case of threat to cyber security.
Despite the obstacle, China has announced its determination to “spare no effort” to make the Olympic games a success. In fact, it is using the Beijing winter Olympics as a tool to consolidate its authoritarianism and further spread its propaganda scheme.
Since her winning of gold medal in Big Air, which makes her the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing at age 18, Eileen Gu has become the most popular face in Chinese social media. People call her “top celebrity”, “perfect” and absolutely wise for choosing to compete for China instead of the US, where she was born and raised. Even before winning the gold medal, Gu was a rising star in the commercial world. Commercial brands fought to win the chance of making her their ambassador. According to Zhang, who works in the sporting industry in China, Gu has signed contracts with nearly 20 brands that bring her over 40 million Canadian dollars of income in 2021, and this number is only going to grow now that her popularity has skyrocketed. In the eyes of the Chinese audience, Gu is talented and smart, as she is going to attend Stanford University, and is a source of national pride, for she speaks fluent mandarin and is keen on spreading Chinese culture and expressing how deep her connection with China is. However, in the US, people’s attitude towards Gu is much more negative. Under the tweet posted by CNN to report on her championship, voices that question her choice of competing for an authoritarian regime and being silent on the Xinjiang issue dominate the ones that congratulate her success. Among the concerns, the most prominent one is the discussion of her nationality. Since China does not allow dual citizenship and Gu has never explicitly said she has given up her US citizenship, whether competing for another country where the athlete is not a citizen is legitimate remains a question. Even though Gu is not the first athlete who chose not to represent her own country and is absolutely entitled to her choice, her case is especially sensitive given the long-lasting tension between US and China. By creating a character of a genius athlete who is originally American but chose to join the team of China, who acts and talk like Chinese, and is extremely expressive on her fervent love to China, Gu caters to the preference of the Chinese citizen and satisfies the Chinese government’s need to appeal to nationalism—playing into the central idea of China’s propaganda. She also sends a message that athletes can have better opportunities in China now, which challenges foreign powers. For some Americans, Gu betrayed their country by siding with the rival, and her behaviour should not be excused.
If using the perfect image of athletes to please domestic audiences and intimidate foreign rivals is still a subtle move, then meeting leaders of other countries to show the force of alliance is definitely a more direct signal that China has sent to the countries that seek to challenge its power. Since the start of the Olympics, Chinese President Xi has met with leaders from countries such as Russia, Serbia, Egypt, etc., which are mostly developing countries that benefit from China’s One Belt One Road Initiative. The meetings show the support from these countries to China amid the diplomatic tension brought by the boycott and exhibit China’s determination to ignore the accusations from other countries. Among the meetings, the meeting between Xi and the president of Russia, Putin, draws the most attention, as the warm relationship between the two countries exposed by their leaders sheds light on the prediction of the deterioration of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The two countries signed a joint statement that declared strong political and military alliances and urged the west to stop involving in the conflict “using the ideological approach of the cold war.”
However, there are also scholars who believe that such a display of solidarity might just be a show, as China and Russia have different interests on the Ukraine issue; Bonny Lin, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, points out that China has good relations with Ukraine. Sanctions from the US and its allies if China continues to support Russia are also a source of concern. In a way, China’s influence is centered on developing countries that do not have significant economic, political and military power, and Russia might be the only truly powerful ally. However, even for Russia, as Stein Ringen points out, Putin is “big in ambition but small in power.” Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been operating with an unsophisticated economy that, according to a report from the World Bank, has “relatively low potential growth.” Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 worsened its relationship with the western countries, which makes its alliance with China more important. However, the political and business community in Russia find China harder to negotiate with than they thought, a situation that is likely attributed to Russia’s declining negotiation power with their stagnant economy and deteriorated diplomatic relationship with other democratic countries.
Therefore, in addition to China’s non-alliance policy, it is reasonable to assume that the “no limits” for the strategic partnership between China and Russia that Xi announced actually have its limit. Nevertheless, China does not shy away from the consequence of bluffing. As a tough leader whose leadership style is converging to that of Mao’s highly individualized and centralized approach, Xi shows no sign of concession on maintaining authoritarianism and toleration to the influence of opposing ideology. The high-profile meeting with Russia is a tool for Xi to assert his attitude to the world, and taking advantage of a rising sports star strengthens the confidence and support from the domestic audience. Being able to reverse negative comments into a tool that helps to consolidate its power, China’s authoritarianism seems to be solid as ever.
Edited by Jayati Sareen
Ruolan is in her last year at McGill University, majoring in Political Science and Economics. As a staff writer of Catalyst, she is particularly interested in the economic policies in Asia and the politics of authoritarian regimes.