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The 2022 Winter Olympics, Calls for Boycotts, and the Role of Sports in China
FromChina Global
ratings:
Length:
22 minutes
Released:
Dec 21, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Next February, the 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Beijing, the venue of the 2008
Summer Olympics. Preparation for the Games is well underway and China has said that it looks
forward to welcoming the athletes; but due to the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing has banned foreign
spectators, as did Japan when it hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics.
As the 2022 Olympics near, several countries, including the United States, Australia, the United
Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and Lithuania, have announced a diplomatic boycott of the
competition, and others may do so as well. So far, all countries will allow their athletes to compete.
The diplomatic boycotts are a response to concerns about China’s human rights practices, especially
in Xinjiang, where at least one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been subject to
involuntary detention in what China labels “reeducation camps.” Countries have very limited
leverage over Chinese domestic human rights practices, and some argue that the Olympics provides
a rare opportunity to voice the international community’s concerns in a way that could shine a
spotlight on China’s human rights violations. In an August 2021 survey, just under half of Americans
stated that they believe China’s human rights record should prevent it from hosting the 2022 Winter
Olympics, while 33 percent were uncertain.
Please note that this podcast was recorded just prior to the Biden administration’s announcement
that it would not send officials to the Olympic Games.
Bonnie Glaser talks with Susan Brownell about the upcoming Olympics and, more broadly, about the
role of sports in China and what the Olympics means to the Chinese people and to the Chinese
Communist Party. Dr. Susan Brownell is a professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis. She was a Fulbright Senior Researcher at Beijing Sport University and competed on the
Chinese track and field team at the Chinese National College Games in 1986. She is also the author
of Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People’s Republic.
Summer Olympics. Preparation for the Games is well underway and China has said that it looks
forward to welcoming the athletes; but due to the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing has banned foreign
spectators, as did Japan when it hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics.
As the 2022 Olympics near, several countries, including the United States, Australia, the United
Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and Lithuania, have announced a diplomatic boycott of the
competition, and others may do so as well. So far, all countries will allow their athletes to compete.
The diplomatic boycotts are a response to concerns about China’s human rights practices, especially
in Xinjiang, where at least one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been subject to
involuntary detention in what China labels “reeducation camps.” Countries have very limited
leverage over Chinese domestic human rights practices, and some argue that the Olympics provides
a rare opportunity to voice the international community’s concerns in a way that could shine a
spotlight on China’s human rights violations. In an August 2021 survey, just under half of Americans
stated that they believe China’s human rights record should prevent it from hosting the 2022 Winter
Olympics, while 33 percent were uncertain.
Please note that this podcast was recorded just prior to the Biden administration’s announcement
that it would not send officials to the Olympic Games.
Bonnie Glaser talks with Susan Brownell about the upcoming Olympics and, more broadly, about the
role of sports in China and what the Olympics means to the Chinese people and to the Chinese
Communist Party. Dr. Susan Brownell is a professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis. She was a Fulbright Senior Researcher at Beijing Sport University and competed on the
Chinese track and field team at the Chinese National College Games in 1986. She is also the author
of Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People’s Republic.
Released:
Dec 21, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (76)
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