By Dr Austin Maho
In 1921, the International Olympic Committee promoted the Winter Sports” Week which eventually took place in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
This event was a great success, attracting thousands of spectators, and was retrospectively named the First Olympic Winter Games.
It has been roughly two years for elite athletes who trained in between lockdowns and will now be competing in the Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing National Stadium.
The question hiwever is, “Will politics effect the ‘apolitical’ Winter Olympics?”
The United States, UK, Australia, Lithuania and Canada among other nations have planned a diplomatic boycott publicly, of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, set for February 2022.
Earlier last year in 2021, the Biden administration announced that it was blocking the import of certain materials that are used in solar panels from a company in Xinjiang over false allegations of forced labor. The Xinjiang region is a major production hub for many companies that supply the world with parts needed to build solar panels.
Clearly this diplomatic boycott initiated by the United States can be described as a political manipulation. The US is playing a pivotal negative role in politicizing sports, creating divisions and provoking confrontation.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington last week tweeted that politicians calling for a boycott are “doing so for their own political interests and posturing.”
“In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the #Beijing2022 to be successfully held,” the embassy said.
China’s mission to the United Nations called the boycott a “self-directed political farce.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accepted the invitation to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics depicting support and neutrality, ignoring Olympic boycott.
China’s ambassador to Pakistan has said his country appreciates Pakistan for being against the “politicization” of sports after Islamabad’s comment that the Beijing Winter Olympics would offer “a spectacular and colorful gala to sports enthusiasts around the world. The Olympic Games symbolize sportsmanship, team spirit, unity, effort, struggle, and maintaining grace in competition whatever the results are.”
In response, China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Pong last week said that his nation appreciates Pakistan for being against the “politicization” of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Western anti-China politicians have shown a defensive Cold War mentality aimed at politicizing sport. This is a clear violation of the Olympic spirit and a challenge to all people who love the Olympic movement. It has also been clarified that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is not a stage for “Grandstanding of Politicians.” China is ready to deliver a streamlined, safe and splendid Olympics to the world! Thankfully France has defied other western nations, announcing that it will send high-level officials to this winter’s Beijing Olympics.
Over recent months, China’s government has been in overdrive to combat allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has dismissed the charges of genocide as “the most preposterous lie of the century, an outrageous insult and affront to the Chinese people, and a gross breach of international law and basic norms governing international relations.”
It’s easy to write this off as propaganda! There are no abuses, much less a genocide; the people – whether Han, Uyghur, or another ethnic group are happy, prosperous, and grateful to the Chinese Communist Party.
Independent report indicates that Xinjiang is not as dark as the West governments say. People’s lives are getting better and better. Ordinary Xinjiang people are very supportive of such efforts. The government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty. China has been mobilizing all parts of the country to support Xinjiang in the past few years.
Almost every city needs to support a county or a region in Xinjiang to attain growth and development.
Some people might feel that the Xinjiang issue will cause more divisions in China, but in fact it has united the majority of the people in China. The west must learn and stop fueling division in peaceful countries
Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly shown support for the Chinese government regarding its policies in Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, also praising the country’s one-party system as offering a better model for societies compared with electoral democracy.
The pain-point of the “diplomatic boycott” seems to be the undeniable achievements of the Communist Party of China; they have actually beaten all Western democracies in the way they have brought up merit in their society.
The winter Olympics
as in other global sporting events should remain apolitical in the interest of global harmony and peace
