The Olympic Games Return to China, in a Changed World
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2022
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
Much has changed since China last hosted the Olympics, during the 2008 Summer Games. Those Games were widely seen as greatly improving China’s international reputation. But the 2022 Winter Games have put a spotlight on its human-rights abuses, most notably the genocide taking place against Uyghurs and Kazakhs. The U.S. government and other nations are boycotting the games in a limited way, leaving government officials home while allowing their athletes to compete, to avoid a bitter disappointment like that in 1980, when America didn’t compete in Moscow. The effect of these actions on China may be limited, but the tensions may be very difficult for athletes to navigate. Peter Hessler, for many years The New Yorker’s China correspondent, asks David Remnick, “When an athlete says something about the internment camps in Xinjiang, and the oppression of Muslim people in China, what is the Chinese response going to be?” “The I.O.C. has really left them out there. The I.O.C. … basically just washed their hands of it. It’s really up to the athletes,” he notes. “A lot of people I’ve talked to are very concerned about this.” At the same time, the sports reporter Louisa Thomas notes that these Games may garner little American support or attention. The delayed Tokyo Games last year “were already the least-watched Games in history,” and there are few big-name American athletes for NBC to promote. “I even have a lot of friends who have no idea there’s about to be an Olympics,” Thomas says. “Which is extraordinary.”
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| 1:16.9 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's Politics and More podcast, two views of the Beijing Olympics. David Remnick will talk to New Yorker staff writer Peter Hessler about how the persecution |
| 1:23.0 | of Muslims in China has changed the international attitude toward the Beijing Games. |
| 1:29.4 | Staff writer Louisa Thomas, who covers sports for the New Yorker, will discuss how enthusiasm |
| 1:34.9 | for the Olympics may be waning, even among sports fans. |
| 1:42.2 | The very real complications facing the Winter Olympics in Beijing go well beyond COVID. |
| 1:48.4 | The games have put a gigantic spotlight on China's human rights abuses, most critically, the genocide taking place against the U.S. government and some other nations are boycotting the games in a limited way, |
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