The calls to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics are growing by the day. A coalition group representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong activists, and many others issued a joint statement in May calling for the complete removal of the Winter Game from Beijing next year. Canada is in a particularly precarious relationship with China. With two Canadian hostages Michael Korvig and Michael Spavor held in prison, Canada so far has had a very tepid response to China’s aggression. The entire cabinet and a few other Liberal MPs along with Prime Minister Trudeau removed themselves from voting for the Uyghur Genocide motion. Perhaps they wanted to send a message of non-provocation to China. But this sort of appeasement has not served Canada well at all in the conundrum of Canada-China relations.
China imposed crushing sanctions on Canada’s agricultural products. The casualties have included Canadian soybeans, canola, pork, and beef. China then lifted sanctions on all these products short five months later due to domestic shortages, COVID-19, and a severe flood in its southern farming communities. In 2020, China ramped up its purchase of canola to a historical high. This trend is expected to continue for some time. Therefore, China’s economic clout on Canada is often exaggerated. And the Trudeau government’s cautious narrative of balancing trade interests and advocating for human rights with China is a false one.
First, the rupture in Canada’s relations with China reveals that China is no longer a rule-based player. Hence it cannot be trusted. Its gross treatment of the two Canadian hostages signals that neither fairness nor reciprocity is in China’s playbook. Meng Wanzhou enjoys her full legal rights in her gilded mansion in Canada while the two Michaels are being kept away in a dingy jail cell somewhere in China. Gone are the good days of “mutual respect” and “trust”. Canadians are given a prime-time viewing of what China’s thuggery of wolf warrior diplomacy looks like.
Secondly, the Trudeau government’s diplomatic niceties have yielded very little result. “Balancing act”, “tightrope” have frequently been part of the Prime Minister’s vocabulary. But that has not changed China’s behavior towards Canada by one iota. China has double-downed on its inflammatory remarks. China’s Consul General to Rio de Janeiro, Li Yang, in a tweet called Trudeau a “running dog” of the United States, a Mao-era vernacular. Lu Shaye, China’s former ambassador to China lashed out at Canada and called Canada a white supremacist country. Chinese diplomats often refer to Trudeau as a lightweight behind close-door meetings. The only language China understands is power and might. Being nice to China is just NOT going to cut it anymore.
Last, the Olympics IS about politics. It always has been.
There is a long history of Olympic boycotts. The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, the USSR boycotted the 1984 Los Angles Olympics as a countermeasure. Netherland, Spain, and Switzerland withdrew from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics out of solidarity with Hungary. Therefore, Beijing’s statement of “The politicization of sports will damage the spirit of the Olympic Charter and the interests of athletes from all countries” is a false one. Canada may not be in the position to boycott the Olympics. But it certainly should not further aid Chinese athletes to train on Canadian soil. The Winter Olympics in Beijing next year is meant to showcase China’s soft power, pandemic control, economic growth if they can expel all the unemployed “low-end population” from Beijing. It is also Beijing’s chance to seize a publicity win on the world stage. With two Canadians still held hostage in China, why should Canada become the useful idiot to Beijing’s “reputation laundering”. The Chinese are probably laughing at Canada for providing world-class training facilities and resources to help Chinese athletes win medals next year while they hold two innocent Canadians hostage.
China has a nationalized sports program which the Chinese government pours over at least 1 billion dollars annually. It weaponizes the Olympics to demonstrate the superiority of its authoritarian regime to the world and its people. These days, China politicizes just about everything from talent shows, fashion brands, supermarket chains, boy bands, to fan its ever-growing fascist and populist ethnonationalism to solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s clinch to power. If China thinks its standing comes from hard power, not adherence to international norms, then it is time for Canada to play hardball. Expelling all Chinese athletes would be a step in the right direction.
Pic from pixabay.com
