Here are 5 PR dramas other than the human rights boycotts that are stealing China's Winter #Olympics thunder -- #China Boss update 2.04.22
Update
What’s happening today.
By the time you're reading this - Beijing will have kicked off the 2022 Winter Olympics with its Opening Ceremony on Friday which was scheduled for 8 p.m. in China (7a.m. EST, 1p.m. CET) at the National Stadium - a.k.a. the Bird’s Nest.
Why it matters.
It’s a new world.
The Olympic Games have returned to China in a very different world from the one of Beijing 2008, which has been described as the PRC’s spectacular "coming out" party.
South China Morning Post (Jan. 30th):
Fourteen years later, and next month’s 2022 Winter Olympics has left little room for China to showcase its national image and burnish its reputation, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced organisers to settle for “simple, safe and splendid”.
But international news is awash with depictions of the dreary “pall” which “hangs over China’s Games.”
External narratives of China's assimilation policy in Xinjiang nonetheless amount to a PR headache for the host country. Western-style democratic nations such as the US, UK and France have used emotive terms to describe what has been occurring in Xinjiang such as "crimes against humanity" and even "genocide". In return, Beijing describes these narratives as a "lie of the century".
Just three days prior to Beijing's Olympic kick-off, even the more circumspect Japanese Parliament approved a "rare resolution" against China's "serious human rights situation," Reuters reported.
The conservative wing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) sought the adoption of the resolution ahead of the Feb. 4 opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics although there were worries in the government about a potential economic impact, Jiji news agency has said.
There have long been competing views within the LDP about the approach to China. The party's more conservative wing is hawkish on China policy and seen as concerned primarily with defence issues. Other members of the party have pushed to preserve Japan's deep economic ties with its neighbour.
The parliamentary resolution called on the Japanese government to work with the international community in addressing the issue.
The International Olympic Committee has also come under fire for returning the Games to a country known for its deplorable human rights record. NBC Olympic Games sportscaster Bob Costas, who has hosted 12 Olympic Games, told CNN:
"The IOC deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again," Costas said on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday.
Costas referenced the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2015 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia as examples of the International Olympic Committee's seeming disregard for the prevalence of human rights abuses when selecting host nations. But now, there's a "greater understanding of everything that China represents," he said.
Who’s boycotting.
Lithuania, Australia, Canada, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. announced months ago they were sending athletes but not senior government officials. Of EU countries, only Poland and Luxembourg will attend the Opening Ceremony. Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands have publicly confirmed they are boycotting to protest China’s human rights abuses, while other EU countries, like Austria, Latvia, Slovenia and Sweden, and New Zealand excused themselves for “Covid-related” reasons.
Italy outright refused to join the boycott back in December, but it seems Spain was having more difficulty making the decision. The Spanish government finally made an 11th hour announcement to say it would not join in a boycott of the Games.
For the most complete update (but still missing India’s latest news), see Reuters’ Factbox: Which world leaders are going to the Beijing Winter Olympics and who is not?, here.
But the Chinese government’s brutality in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet is not the only issue creating some seriously bad international press.
Here are 5 more dramas threatening to steal Bejing’s Olympic thunder.
#5 India’s angry boycott over PLA torchbearer.
Sino-Indian ties just keep spiraling downward. India on Thursday announced it would not send officials to either the Opening or the Closing ceremony "after a [Chinese PLA] commander involved in 2020 border clashes between the two countries appeared as an Olympic torchbearer in the customary torch relay leading up to the Games," CNN reported. Soon after, Doordarshan, India's public broadcaster, announced it would not carry the live telecast of the ceremonies.
CNN:
The decisions were sparked after images showed People's Liberation Army commander Qi Fabao honored as one of the some 1,200 people to bear the Olympic torch as it moves across the Olympic competition zones in the lead-up to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron Friday evening. Chinese basketball superstar and former NBA player Yao Ming and astronaut Jing Haipeng were among other honorees to carry the flame alongside Qi on the relay's opening day Wednesday.
Qi has been hailed a hero in China for his role fighting in the deadly 2020 India-China skirmish at a disputed border in the Himalayan region that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. China has said the People's Liberation Army lost four soldiers.
India “had earlier expressed its unequivocal support for China to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping last November, but is furious that ‘the Chinese side has chosen to politicize an event like the Olympics.’”the Hindustan Times said.
#4 Concerns over Covid test-tampering.
Olympian Noah Hoffman suggested that “the absence of an ‘anti-doping style chain of command’ for Covid tests inside the Olympic bubble makes athletes who speak out about human rights issues potentially vulnerable to tampered Covid tests that could delay or disqualify them from competition,” Politico China Watcher’s Phelim Kine noted. But the International Olympic Committee quickly responded that it had measures in place to prevent that risk.
Not a chance, says the International Olympic Committee, which touts a 20-person medical expert team composed of Chinese and international “virologists, public health and infectious disease experts” who will review any questionable Covid test results.
That sounded great until Scott Reid at The Mercury News reminded everyone that the presence of independent observers during the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi didn't stop Russian security services from tampering with Russian athletes’ urine samples to enable them to pass anti-doping tests.
While Dr. Brian McCloskey, chairman of the IOC’s Beijing 2022 Medical Expert Panel, tried to ease concerns about COVID testing manipulation, his admission that the testing system was “all run by the (Beijing) laboratory and controlled by the Beijing authorities” during a recent briefing has not restored confidence among many athletes, coaches and others that Chinese officials could tamper with tests to cover up positive readings for Chinese athletes or manipulate the results for foreign athletes who pose a potential threat to the medal hopes of host nation stars.
“I one-hundred percent agree and it’s totally plausible” that Chinese authorities could manipulate COVID tests, said a prominent U.S. Olympian, who asked not to be identified because of a fear of being a target for retribution by Chinese and IOC officials. “I went into these Olympics knowing there was going to be (expletive).”
#3 Concerns over spying.
The chance that China will spy on foreign athletes has been treated as a foregone conclusion by security services and Olympic committees of various countries, as well as independent analysts. The FBI explained the risks in a private industry notification (PIN) published on Monday: Potential for Malicious Cyber Activities to Disrupt the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
As we mentioned in PIN 20210719-001, large, high-profile events provide an opportunity for criminal and nation-state cyber actors to make money, sow confusion, increase their notoriety, discredit adversaries, and advance ideological goals. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, no foreign spectators will be allowed to attend the Olympics or Paralympics. Spectators will be reliant on remote streaming services and social media throughout the duration of the Games. Adversaries could use social engineering and phishing campaigns leading up to and during the event to implant malware to disrupt networks broadcasting the event. Cyber actors could use ransomware or other malicious tools and services available for purchase to execute DDoS attacks against Internet service providers and television broadcast companies to interrupt service during the Olympics. Similarly, actors could target the networks of hotels, mass transit providers, ticketing services, event security infrastructure or similar Olympic support functions.
More specific to China, Nicholas Eftimiades, senior fellow at the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, warned:
First, the athletes must be aware that the information they provide on their visa applications has been used to create files and open-source collection efforts on them. That research effort identifies and places athletes into at least two categories: First, those who have espoused public views that the CCP deems threatening, such as issues relating to democracy, freedom, human rights, Uyghurs, Tibet, minorities, Hong Kong, women’s rights, homosexuality, and/or transgender issues. And second, those that have made public statements in support of China (what the CCP would call “friends of China”). The first group can threaten China’s image by making public statements at the Winter Olympics, while the second group can be exploited to represent China in a positive light.
Regardless of category, however, athletes can expect to have their cellphone signals intercepted upon arrival in Beijing. Cellphone towers will record everything from the metadata to actual content of messages. The information gathered from the interceptions will be relayed to China’s Ministry of Public Security. There are several national security laws that require companies to provide all communications and associated information to the state’s intelligence and security services upon request. There are also reports from China on criminal organizations using fake cellphone towers to collect personal information on individuals and using the information for a variety of fraud schemes.
#2 China’s isolation of 60k people inside its Olympic “bubble.”
Belgian Olympic skelton racer Kim Meylemans made international headlines after a China quarantine scare. Meylemans contracted Covid in early January, but says she took dozens of tests that came back negative prior to her departure for Beijing. However, after arrival in China, she tested positive and was, according to International Olympic Committee protocols, supposed to quarantine for three days at the Olympic Village. But Chinese Olympic officials felt differently, it seems.
In a tearful video posted on Instagram, Meylemans related how she thought she had been told by the Chinese authorities that she would be allowed to return to the Olympic Village to complete her isolation, only to be ferried to another facility and yet more isolation.
Breathing hard and appearing bewildered, Meylemans said she was unsure whether she would be fit to compete. Even Belgian Olympic officials had not been told where she was being taken, she suggested. “I ask you all to give me some time to consider my next steps, because I’m not sure I can handle 14 more days and the Olympic competition while being in this isolation,” she said.
Hours after Meylemans’ emotional appeal went viral on social media, officials removed her from the facility where she was being held and transported her to the Olympic Village. But her case highlighted the anxieties many foreign athletes and visitors have over Beijing’s draconian Zero-Covid measures. Global Athlete director general Rob Koehler told the Times: “This is the problem we said there would be from the beginning. No one knew what to expect.”
Still, China’s efforts may ultimately be wasted, as Covid has already “crashed” its Winter Olympic bubble, Politico China Watcher’s Phelim Kine said.
— COVID CRASHES BEIJING GAMES’ ‘CLOSED LOOP’: Beijing Olympics authorities announced Tuesday the first confirmed case of an unidentified foreign athlete testing positive for Covid-19 inside the Games’“closed loop” system. That system separates athletes and officials from the outside world to mitigate viral spread. The system faces challenges: Testing revealed 42 Covid infections inside the closed loop bubble between Jan. 4 and Jan. 24. Those numbers will only rise as thousands of athletes and officials arrive for the Feb. 4 Games opening and are subjected to daily multiple rounds of Covid testing.
But China Boss thinks President Xi’s Most Amazing “Zero-Covid” Show on Earth is here to stay at least until the 20th Party Congress in November, which is when the Chinese leader will learn whether his bid to secure life tenure has been successful.
#1 Russia’s threat to Ukraine.
Last, but not least - since it’s a significant threat to world peace that could also be a prelude to World War Three - the mother of all China’s 2022 Winter Olympics distractions is Vladimir Putin’s potential military invasion of Ukraine. That the Russian leader scheduled a personal meeting in China with President Xi Jinping ahead of the Opening Ceremony in Beijing has journalists, foreign policy analysts and security nerds all abuzz.
When the leaders of China and Russia meet in Beijing this Friday shortly before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, observers of the bilateral relationship will be looking for insights into how this 21st century quasi-alliance is reshaping the postwar world order.
It was 50 years ago this month, on 21 February 1972, that the historic handshake between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong changed the geometry of the cold war. Historians called the visit “the week that changed the world”. It later influenced Washington’s subsequent movement towards détente with Moscow.
Yet, half a century on, with talk of another cold war – this time between the US and China – on the rise, Moscow and Beijing are, instead, inching closer. Amid the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, Beijing last week publicly seconded Moscow’s “security concerns” regarding Nato. On Thursday, it released a statement saying its and Russia’s foreign ministers had coordinated their positions on regional issues of common concern, including Ukraine, Afghanistan and the Korean peninsular.
“This will be their 38th [meeting] since 2013, [and] is uniquely significant because of the foreign policy challenges each leader is facing at the moment,” David Shullman, senior director of the Global China Hub at the Atlantic Council, said of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
“Putin appreciates Chinese public expressions of support for Russia’s position on Ukraine that demonstrate the Kremlin is not isolated internationally,” he said. “For China, Putin’s visit is an important demonstration of support at a time when the US, UK, and other countries are undertaking a diplomatic boycott of the Games.”
But how China’s words might translate into action in a possible military campaign against Ukraine - especially one that reaches very close to NATO-allied countries in Europe - is anyone’s guess. However, in a recent interview with Politico, one Russian analyst alluded to some pretty tough wake-up calls for Moscow after assuming China’s support in the past.
For China, sanctions could provide a business opportunity and increase its sway over Russia, whose economy is 11 times smaller.
But “given the economic interests of Chinese companies in Europe, [Beijing] does not wish to increase conflict here, and its appeal is to all actors on whom effective European security arrangements depend,” said Igor Denisov, a senior research fellow at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
If the past is any guide, both in 2008 and 2014, the Chinese adopted the position of a concerned but neutral bystander. Continuing to do business with Russia, yes, but certainly not cutting it an easy deal.
“In 2014, there were those in Moscow who had these naive expectations that Russia would turn its back on Europe, and China would fill the void,” said Gabuev. “But it led to disappointment.”
If Russia’s economy is in a better place to withstand sanctions today than it was in 2014, it is primarily due to domestic fiscal measures. China comes in second, Gabuev said.
Still, although the whole affair is totally upstaging President Xi’s international propaganda by drawing the world’s attention away from Beijing, Chinese state media has carefully curated the news at home for “the proper perspective” and - in that perspective - all that really matters is how China wins.
David Bachman, The Conversation:
As a scholar of Chinese politics and foreign policy, I believe that Xi wants the Games to impress the world.
But that is less important to him than the domestic effect of the Games.
China is not traditionally strong in winter sports. But the country has invested heavily in preparing increasingly competitive teams for these Games. The success of Chinese athletes at the Games will enhance China’s reputation and thus Chinese citizens’ sense of pride. In turn, this will mute competition from Xi’s opposition within the Chinese Communist Party.
FreeSki world champion Eileen Gu chose to compete for China – her mother is Chinese – and not the U.S., where she was born and is a citizen. Her choice may yield golds in areas where China is not a strong competitor.
Her decision also reverberates with Xi’s call on all ethnic Chinese worldwide to aid China’s development. Chinese domestic propaganda will highlight how she chose China over the U.S., and implicitly urge others to do the same.
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Have a nice weekend.