Beijing's Genocide Olympics

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Right now, the Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing. But for the Chinese Communist Party, the 2022 Games are an opportunity not simply for athleticism, but for authoritarianism. Athletes at the Games are subject not just to official Olympics rules, but also the heavy hand of the CCP. They are being spied on—and they have been warned, including by Nancy Pelosi, not to criticize the injustices China is committing in plain sight. Why is America participating in an Olympics in a country committing genocide? What does it say about our relationship with China? And will historians remember these games in the way we remember the 1936 Berlin Olympics? Josh Rogin is a foreign policy columnist for The Washington Post, the author of “Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century,” and a favorite Honestly guest. Today he breaks down what you aren’t seeing when you tune into this year’s Olympics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Barry Weiss, this is honestly, and for today the debacle of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing
0:07.4	with my guest and absolute favorite China reporter Josh Roggen.
0:12.1	Josh, thanks for doing this.
0:14.0	Great to be back.
0:15.0	Josh, you're a columnist for the Washington Post,
0:17.0	and you are always ahead of the curve
0:18.0	when it comes to the subject of China.
0:20.0	Some might know you as a guy who last year took down the idea that the lab leak theory was just some right-wing conspiracy.
0:28.0	You're also the author of the book Chaos Under Heaven, which is about China under the As we join you on a Friday night in China,
0:44.0	athletes from all over the world are gathering backstage
0:48.0	for the opening ceremony of the 24th Olympic Winter Games.
0:52.0	The Winter Olympics in Beijing are underway right now.
0:57.0	Welcome to the Olympic Winter Games.
1:00.0	Beijing 2022. And I'd love if you can drop us in to the beginning of those games to the opening ceremonies and describe for me the absurd scene that played out that night.
1:14.0	This is the mission of the Olympic Games.
1:18.0	Bringing us together in peaceful competition, always building bridges, never erecting walls, become stronger.
1:34.0	Together.
1:41.0	And with uniqueness, grand style, but also unmistakable messaging.
1:47.0	The opening ceremony of the Beijing Games. So for months, if not years, we've been wondering, how would the Chinese Communist Party in 2022 handle what is clearly their biggest
1:57.9	project international showcase that they've had since 2008 at least and could have for the next 10 years at this crazy moment.
2:05.9	And far from something that would align with the professed Olympic spirit and the professed values of the Olympic Games. The entire
2:14.8	event was orchestrated to push the Chinese Communist Party's political agenda.
	...

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