{"id":118212,"date":"2022-01-25T14:12:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T19:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=118212"},"modified":"2022-01-25T14:12:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T19:12:11","slug":"wright-state-political-science-professor-quoted-in-ap-story-about-2022-beijing-winter-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2022\/01\/25\/wright-state-political-science-professor-quoted-in-ap-story-about-2022-beijing-winter-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State political science professor quoted in AP story about 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"WrightWhen Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee predicted the Games could improve human rights, and Chinese politicians hinted at the same.<\/p>\n

Such talk is all but absent this time as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics open in just over a week.<\/p>\n

The Games are a reminder of both China\u2019s rise and its disregard for civil liberties, which has prompted a diplomatic boycott led by the U.S.<\/p>\n

Rights groups have documented\u00a0forced labor, mass detention and torture, and the U.S. has called China\u2019s internment of at least 1 million Uyghurs genocide. China has also come under criticism over the near-disappearance from public view of tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a former senior member of the ruling Communist Party of sexually assaulting her.<\/p>\n

But with more political, economic and military clout than it had 13 1\/2 years ago, China appears to be worrying less about global scrutiny this time. And the COVID-19 pandemic has given it even more control over the Olympics, particularly with the isolation of visiting journalists, separated in a \u201cbubble\u201d from the Chinese population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to \u2018prove\u2019 at this point; 2008 was a \u2018coming out\u2019 party and all this one does is confirm what we\u2019ve known for the last decade,\u201d Amanda Shuman, a China researcher at the University of Freiburg, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, there\u2019s a lot less pressure than 2008,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Chinese government knows full well that its global economic upper hand allows it to do whatever it wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IOC had few options when it awarded China the Games for the second time.\u00a0Six possible European candidates, led by Norway and Sweden, bowed out for political or cost reasons. Voters in two other countries \u2014 Switzerland and Germany \u2014 voted no in referendums.<\/p>\n

IOC members eventually picked Beijing \u2014 an authoritarian state that doesn\u2019t need voter approval to proceed \u2014 over Almaty, Kazakhstan, in a close vote, 44-40.<\/p>\n

The IOC has allowed China to avoid human rights oversight. Beginning with the 2024 Paris Olympics, host cities must adhere to the\u00a0U.N. Guiding Principles\u00a0on Business and Human Rights. But China was not subject to those rules when it was picked in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen China hosts the Olympics again, it is no longer the China back in 2008,\u201d dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said in an email to The AP. Ai helped design the famous Bird\u2019s Nest stadium that was used in the 2008 Games \u2014 hoping it would signify a new openness \u2014 and then regretted doing so, calling it and the Olympics China\u2019s \u201cfake smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ai was jailed in 2011 in China on unspecified charges and how lives in exile in Portugal. The Bird\u2019s Nest will again host the opening ceremony on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina today has deviated further away from democracy, freedom of press and human rights, and the reality has become even harsher,\u201d Ai added.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s tone has toughened since the last time it hosted the Games.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Beijing put some curbs on broadcasting from Tiananmen Square but allowed it; agreed to \u201cprotest zones,\u201d though they were never used, with access repeatedly denied; and dropped some reporting restrictions more than a year ahead of the Games. It also unblocked its censored internet for journalists.<\/p>\n

In 2022, there is less accommodation. The pandemic will limit journalists to a tightly sealed \u201cbubble,\u201d though there will be internet access. Chinese organizers have\u00a0warned foreign athletes\u00a0that any statement that goes against Chinese law could be punished. And a smartphone app widely used by athletes and reporters has glaring security vulnerabilities, according to an internet watchdog.<\/p>\n

Some national Olympic committees have advised teams and staff not to take personal phones or laptops to Beijing.<\/p>\n

The IOC, which generates billions from\u00a0sponsorships and broadcast rights, seldom pushes back in public against Chinese organizers who are, in reality, the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

Some of the changes that affect 2022 began a month after the 2008 Olympics ended, when the global financial crisis hit. China fared better than most countries, which increased its confidence.<\/p>\n

China has since seen the rise of Xi Jinping, who headed the 2008 Olympics and was named general secretary of the Communist Party in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough Xi was in charge of 2008 Olympic Games, the Winter Games is truly Xi\u2019s Games,\u201d said Xu Guoqi, who teaches history at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of \u201cOlympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Gallagher, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, said the state of U.S. democracy and its \u201cpoor pandemic response\u201d have further emboldened China.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now the multiple U.S. failures create momentum for renewed nationalism and confidence in China,\u201d Gallagher said by email. \u201cThis is made all the more effective by the Communist Party\u2019s strict control over information, which can rain \u2018positive energy\u2019 down on what\u2019s happening in China while only publicizing negative accounts of other countries, especially the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

China complained in 2008 that human rights protests around Tibet politicized the Olympics. The Olympic Torch Relay, taken on a world tour, faced violent protests in London and elsewhere. The IOC has not tried such a relay since.<\/p>\n

China, which has called the allegations of human rights abuses the \u201clie of the century,\u201d says mixing sports and politics goes against the Olympic Charter. IOC President Thomas Bach has likewise used that principle as a shield against critics.<\/p>\n

\"Laura

Laura Luehrmann, Ph.D., professor of political science and chair of the School of Public and International Affairs<\/p><\/div>\n

But others see hypocrisy on China\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports and politics do mix,\u201d Laura Luehrmann, a China specialist at Wright State University, said in an email. \u201cPolitics is about the distribution and use of limited resources \u2014 most notably power and decision-making, but also finances as well. Sports is all about power and money \u2014 even if framed as glorifying athletic achievement.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Victor Cha, who served in the White House under President George W. Bush and is the author of \u201cBeyond the Final Score \u2014 The Politics of Sport in Asia,\u201d said China\u2019s moaning about others politicizing sports is \u201cthe pot calling the kettle black.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no country that has ignored the Olympic Charter\u2019s mandate to keep politics out of sports more than China,\u201d Cha, who teaches at Georgetown University, wrote in an essay last week for the\u00a0Center for Strategic & International Studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch as the world would like the Olympics to be devoid of politics, as George Orwell once wrote: \u2018Sport is war minus the shooting.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

View the original story at apnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSports and politics do mix,\u201d Laura Luehrmann, a China specialist at Wright State University…\u201cPolitics is about the distribution and use of limited resources \u2014 most notably power and decision-making… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":118236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118212"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118248,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118212\/revisions\/118248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}