The International Olympic Committee has a history of supporting authoritarianism (see: Nazis), and covering China in the Peng Shuai scandal is just the latest example.
Last week, Human Rights Watch sent a public letter to the International Olympic Committee, calling on the International Olympic Committee to stop conducting "Chinese national propaganda" against the former deputy prime minister of the People's Republic of China Zhang Gaoli on the allegations of sexual assault by tennis star Peng Shuai, who subsequently disappeared.
"The International Olympic Committee has moved from being silent about Beijing's poor human rights record to actively cooperating with Chinese authorities to undermine freedom of speech and ignore so-called sexual abuse," the letter wrote, quoting Human Rights Watch policy researcher Wang Yaqiu. "The International Olympic Committee seems to value the relationship with the main human rights abusers, rather than the rights and safety of Olympic athletes."
HRW humiliates the IOC for advocating authoritarianism. There are some very interesting things, because even a cursory reading of the history of the IOC is clear on this issue: the IOC likes to support authoritarianism. Can't get enough. Telling the IOC to stop cooperating with violent and authoritarian forces is like telling your dog to stop eating cat feces from the trash can. Of course, they may look at you with sad eyes for a second, but they just want to take another bite of that precious and delicious feces.
For those who are not familiar with what has happened so far: On November 2nd, Peng Shuai, a 35-year-old Chinese tennis star and the number one doubles player in the world in 2014, posted a letter to China’s officially controlled Weibo. Social media network. She claimed that in 2007, she was raped by a powerful member of the Communist Party, Goryeo, and had an intermittent relationship with the politician under pressure until 2018. Shuai's post was removed from Weibo by national censorship, but the bird came out: her accusation spread through social channels like a bushfire. China's national censorship agency even removed Shuai's name and even the use of the word "tennis" from the platform.
On January 5, 2011, on the third day of the ASB Classic held at the ASB Tennis Center in Auckland, New Zealand, Chinese player Peng Shuai served in a match with Russian player Kuznetsova.
Shuai disappeared from public view for two weeks. The Women's Tennis Association, which has a lot of business in China, publicly criticized the government's response to Shuai's allegations. This is a taboo for leagues that want to do business in China, and tennis stars have attracted worldwide attention. On November 17, the Chinese state media issued a suspicious statement that they claimed to be from Shuai, in which "she" said that the accusation was false and the WTA should not say anything about her without clarifying with her in advance.
"I hope to have the opportunity to promote Chinese tennis with everyone in the future. I hope Chinese tennis gets better and better," the message read. On the 20th, an editor of the Chinese state media "Global Times" posted a video of a handsome meal on Twitter and "confirmed" the date:
Another video shared by Chinese state media purportedly taken the next morning claimed to show Shuai was participating in a tennis match, although the video was short and close-up, which led people to accuse it of being staged:
A series of posts about Shuai's happiness are not very convincing. The WTA continues to be angry about this, claiming that if the government does not conduct a full investigation of Shuai's claims, they are willing to withdraw from the event in China. (If you ask me, this is a dubious promise, but I'm glad they are trying.)
On the other hand, the International Olympic Committee chose to conduct so-called "quiet diplomacy" on this matter, which is a sports bureaucratic term that means "intervention for the authoritarian system." On November 20th, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, apparently had a half-hour call with Peng via the Internet, and a member of the Chinese Olympic Committee also participated in the conference call. Without the video or recording of the conversation, Bach would not say whether he asked Shuai about allegations of sexual assault against Goryeo. Bach claimed that he advised them to eat dinner during the Winter Olympics that will start in Beijing in February next year. An adjutant of Bach said that Shuai looked relaxed. Look? everything is fine. Don't worry guys, the IOC is handling this case!
On the other hand, WTA has been unable to talk to Shuai so far. Again, their position on this is that they want to "confirm that she has freedom of movement" and "not be forced to make a statement because she is worried about her safety." On the other hand, the International Olympic Committee has performed well and well. cool. Ask their longest-serving board member Dick Pound: "The IOC has established that quiet and cautious diplomacy makes you better than hitting cymbals... This is not how you deal with any country, of course it is not. Dealing with China. To accuse the International Olympic Committee of collusion with China's propaganda activities surrounding Peng is total nonsense."
nonsense! It is absolutely impossible for the IOC to cooperate with authoritarian governments that wish to spread suspicious information:
Now, I don’t want to imply that Xi Jinping’s government is on par with Hitler’s regime in terms of atrocities. But the humiliation of the 1936 Berlin Olympics — and the IOC’s respect for the Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany — should be the first thing the IOC considers when it decides to conduct business anywhere. of course not. If anything, the cost of hosting the Nazi German Olympics is as high as 30 million U.S. dollars (in the United States)-more than all previous Olympics combined-and has become a model for every Olympic Games of the International Olympic Committee since then. After Berlin, the IOC has gradually become accustomed to cooperating with "flexible" governments that will pay for the privilege and prestige of hosting the Olympics, and will pay more attention to crazy spectacles, attracting every profitable one as much as possible. eyeball. Even after 36 years of historic disasters, considerations such as democracy and state violence will be prompted before being thrown into the trash can full of the money they withdrew from the community where they landed.
Like other wayward pillars of global capital in the world, the International Olympic Committee insists that their huge money printing operations have actually brought peace and progress—an open world harbor that spreads democracy widely. In 2001, when China won the right to host the Olympic Games for the first time, François Carrard, then Director-General of the International Olympic Committee, stated that the International Olympic Committee “...was fully aware of a problem on the table. , That’s human rights. Either you say that because of some serious human rights issues, we closed the door, voted as sanctions, and hoped that things would develop better. Another way is to bet on openness. We bet we will watch To a lot of changes."
Of course, they did see the changes after the Beijing Olympics. China has become more oppressive, suppressing dissent across the country, using surveillance technology like no other government in human history, using soft power methods to suppress rough protests from global corporate partners, and shutting up to 2 million Uyghurs to criticism The authors call it "continuous genocide."
This is the way the IOC touches everywhere: a gentle nod to global peace, and then autocratic flexibility to make the Olympics work. No one is immune-even the United States is no exception.
The Los Angeles Police Department saw the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as an opportunity, if any, it was the dispersal of American authoritarianism. They said, hey, if all these people come in from outside the city, we want all the surrounding areas to be peaceful and safe, so that there won't be any international incidents or what you have. LAPD immediately used the security budget allocated by the federal government to militarize their department and purchased a large number of machine guns, infrared equipment and a tank. They did not find much use during the Olympics, but they did eventually use it to clear suspicious drug dens. .
The Los Angeles Police Department also took this opportunity to hire and quickly train a group of new officers, who began to perform important tasks to remove as many homeless people from the Los Angeles Stadium as possible. Then, when the Olympics ended, they actually kept money, tanks, SWAT teams, and militarization methods. Los Angeles plans to host the Olympics again in 2028, and the Los Angeles Police Department is already preparing for another large-scale, permanent budget increase, using the Olympics as an excuse.
The Olympic rings are displayed outside the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Governments continue to use the Olympics as an excuse for authoritarian projects. Rio Tinto used the 2016 Olympics to strengthen its deadly police force in the local slums. The 2012 transformation of London provided them with resources to expand the surveillance status of an already bloated place. The 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia took place under the shadow of Vladimir Putin's insanity attack on the Russian gay community. Members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot were whipped by Cossacks during the Olympics. The worst However, unmarked Russian troops flocked to the Crimea region of Ukraine four days after the end of the Olympics. However, I am sure that the democratization impact of the International Olympic Committee has increased the consideration for a long time.
Wherever the Olympics go, authoritarianism will follow. They provide a double opportunity for any government that allows them to enter: on the one hand to reshape the public space to meet the needs of police and real estate developers, on the other hand, provide a broad international opportunity to meet the strong interest of international propaganda. The IOC does not care about this or anything, as long as their services are paid and reported by the media.
Fun fact: Did you know that the Olympic torch relay was the brainchild of Nazi bureaucrat Carl Diem? The torch was ignited at Mount Olympus, the site of the ancient Greek Games, via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia, and then arrived in Berlin, where the German athlete and future IOC official Fritz Sylgen ( Fritz Schilgen) lit the torch. A huge cauldron was lit in the center of the Olympic Stadium, surrounded by hundreds of red swastika flags.
In retrospect, the symbolism of the flame leaving the birthplace of Western civilization, passing through a series of countries that Hitler will invade in the next decade, and finding its climax home in the center of the flourishing Nazi empire is very chilling. You would think that the International Olympic Committee would throw this in the trash the moment the war is over, and they are ready to resume operations. But they just don't think like that. The commemoration of this event on their website did not mention these evil energies at all. Or, in 1945, Wu Tingyan gave a speech to thousands of Hitler youths at the Olympic Stadium, encouraging them to resist the Red Army like the Spartans. die. old. They don't care about the despicableness they cause. It is a waste of time to appeal to their kind nature. they do not.