Australian Polity, Volume 10 Number 1 & 2
March 2022 issue of Australian Polity
March 2022 issue of Australian Polity
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Guess which country is a gold medallist for Olympic
boycotts. Surely not the country that claimed
recently a diplomatic boycott to be a ‘political
manipulation and a grave distortion of the Olympic
Charter.’ If you guessed China, you would be correct. The
PRC boycotted the Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, Tokyo
in 1964, Montreal in 1976 and Moscow in 1980. These
were full boycotts, not simply the diplomatic boycotts
imposed by the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, New Zealand
and Lithuania to date on the Beijing Winter games. Others
may follow: last July the European Parliament passed a
resolution urging EU leaders to ‘refuse the invitation of
government officials and diplomats to attend the Beijing
2022 Winter Olympics.’
At first, the Chinese Communist Party was dismissive of
the action which had already been foreshadowed when
some 20 nations declined the sign the traditional Olympic
truce. Foreign dignitaries weren’t invited was the official
line. ‘Whether they come or not, nobody cares,’ said CCP
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. But when
the decisions were announced, the CCP propaganda
swung to its usual high dungeon: the West would pay
for this snub.
True to form, the International Olympic Committee fell in
behind the CCP. The Olympics are about human flourishing
according to the IOC. Tell that to the millions of Uyghurs,
Tibetans, Hong Kongers and others suffering from the
CCP’s brutal activities.
The IOC is conflicted, if not compromised, over China.
Even the uniforms worn by the IOC members and
administrators for both the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics
are supplied by the Hengyuanxiang Group, which has a
textiles factory in Xinjiang where the use of Uyghur slave
labor is common.
Five years ago, the CCP and the IOC were involved in
the closure of the UN Office on Sport for Development
and Peace, giving more power to each. The UN itself is
highly conflicted. An employee, Emma Reilly recently
accused the Commission for Human Rights of sharing
names of dissidents with the Chinese authorities, who
then arrest them and place them in detention camps.
‘China wants to make sure that the Uyghur genocide is
never discussed anywhere in the UN,’ she said.
The IOC’s reaction to the ‘disappearance’ of the tennis
star, Peng Shuai, is telling. ‘Nothing to see here,’ is the
message from the Olympics body after a staged video
call between IOC president Thomas Bach and Peng. It
is most unlikely that Peng organised the call. A Chinese
IOC member, Li Lingwei, was also on the call, but all that
has emerged is a photo of Peng talking to Bach. There
was no transcript. It has also emerged that another call
was also held, but again the details are vague.
The attitude of the IOC stands in stark contrast to the
Women’s Tennis Association Tour, whose CEO, Steve
Simon, led the global concerns about Peng. Despite
repeated attempts to contact Peng, the WTA remains
unable to connect. Based on a likely choreographed
call to the IOC, the world is expected to believe Peng is
safe. In contrast to the IOC, the WTA has announced it
will suspend tournaments in China.
As these events were occurring, the independent China
Tribunal issued a devastating report on the plight of
the Uyghurs after a year-long investigation. Chaired by
the war crimes prosecutor, Sir Geoffrey Nice, the panel
concluded that China has committed genocide against
the Uyghurs. The panel was ‘satisfied that President Xi
Jinping, Chen Quanguo and other very senior officials
in the PRC and CCP bear primary responsibility for acts
in Xinjiang.’ The tribunal accepted evidence of torture,
mass internments, forcible transfer of Uyghur children to
state-run facilities, and a mass birth-prevention strategy.
China had undertaken a ‘deliberate, systematic and
concerted policy’ to bring about the ‘long-term reduction
of Uyghur and other ethnic minority populations.’ While
acknowledging that there was “no evidence of mass
killings” in Xinjiang yet, Sir Geoffrey said that the efforts
to prevent births amounted to genocidal intent.
Many of the same practices have been deployed in
Tibet, where some 800,000 children have been housed
in state-run institutions. Chinese language and culture
are prioritised over Tibetan in a deliberate policy to wipeout
the local culture.
The Tribunal’s recent report followed previous findings
of Crimes Against Humanity against the Falan Gong
practitioners and Uyghurs had been proven beyond
reasonable doubt.
Australian Polity 19