The Olympic Games in Tokyo
Are really hurting the feelings of the Chinese people
What’s the problem this time?
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
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So, the Olympics.
A time when countries around the world can set aside their differences and engage in
peaceful competitive sportsmanship.
Unless you’re the Chinese Communist Party.
Then it has to be a constant propaganda war.
Even though China has been winning gold medals in Tokyo this week, “Not everyone watching
was happy.
Online, Chinese state media and the country’s ever-active diplomats were on close watch
for any perceived slights, no matter how inconsequential.”
Right from the opening ceremony, China’s wolf warrior diplomats, or as I call them,
troll face diplomats, were on the warpath.
During the opening ceremony, NBC displayed this horrible offensive map of China.
Now if you’re thinking to yourself, “Why are they upset?
That *is* the map of China?”
Well, I’m afraid you just don’t understand the feelings of the Chinese people, according
to the Communist Party.
They want *this* map, a map that includes not just the independent country of Taiwan,
but China’s 9-dash line that claims the entire South China Sea belongs to China.
The Chinese consulate in New York tweeted, “Using a wrong map of China is a real lack
of common sense.
Politicizing sports and violating the Olympics Charter spirits will only do harm to the Olympics
Games and the relationship between the Chinese and the US people.
Yes, we certainly wouldn’t want to politicize the Olympic Games, would we?
Anyway, moving on to the next thing China chose to politicize at the Olympic Games.
Behold the beautiful flag of Chinese Taipei.
What’s that you say?
Chinese Taipei isn’t a real country?
Correct!
Chinese Taipei is what the International Olympic Committee forces Taiwanese athletes to compete
under.
68 Taiwanese athletes are in this year’s games.
When Taiwanese athletes win medals, they aren’t allowed to fly their country’s flag and
they aren’t allowed to play their national anthem.
Instead, a song called the flag anthem plays.
The only other country that has to do that is Russia, because technically they were banned
for a massive state sponsored doping scandal.
So Russian athletes have to compete under the ROC: the Russian Olympic Committee.
Taiwan, however, is called Chinese Taipei not because of anything Taiwan did wrong—but
because of the Chinese Communist Party.
It wants to invade Taiwan, and doesn’t like people calling it an independent country.
Taiwan would have been banned from the Olympics if they didn’t agree to this.
That’s the power and influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
But Taiwan does still fight back.
Beijing translates Chinese Taipei as Zhongguo taibei.
Zhongguo basically means China.
Taiwan however translates it as Zhonghua Taibei.
Zhonghua refers more to the Chinese ethnicity, rather than the country.
Of course, Hong Kong athletes are in a worse position.
They have to suffer through the Chinese national anthem if they win.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the anthem of Hong Kong, China.
Considering the ongoing repression of Hong Kong, that can’t be fun.
Which is why I appreciate how this Twitter user replaced it with the Hong Kong protest
song, Glory to Hong Kong.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the anthem of Hong Kong, China.
That makes me almost as happy as if we started referring to China’s teams as Chinese Beijing.
Hong Kong by the way, won its first gold medal in 25 years.
And also won more than one medal for the first time ever.
Congratulations Hong Kong!
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but the way things are going, I’m not sure how much longer
Hong Kong is going to be allowed to compete at the Olympics as a separate team from China.
But that’s in the future.
At this year’s Olympics, there are still plenty of other things the Chinese Communist
Party is upset about.
Which I’ll get to after this short commercial break.
Welcome back.
Hostile foreign forces are using the Olympics to attack China!
Especially Japan—which is hosting the Games.
As my favorite Chinese state run media the Global Times says, “Some Japanese forces
are likely to take advantage of the stage to play tricks.”
And tricks they did play.
An anchor for Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK introduced the Taiwan team, not the Chinese
Taipei team.
And NHK was listing Taiwan’s medal count on its website.
Truly despicable how they provided clarity, instead of using the confusing and made-up
name “Chinese Taipei.”
As the Global Times says, “A joint effort is needed to combat Japanese forces who are
attempting to take advantage of the Olympics to engage in political conspiracies.
The Olympics is a holy stage.
All dirty tricks need to be kicked out of it.”
Sounds to me like China is trying to kick out not just Taiwan, but also Japan from the
Olympics.
But even in victory, the Chinese Communist Party can’t be happy.
That’s almost sad, isn’t it?
China took gold in the women’s weightlifting category.
But this photo Reuters used of the winner deeply hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,
according to the Communist Party.
Chinese embassies and netizens fired back.
The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka tweeted, “Among all the photos of the game, Reuters
has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are.
Don’t put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media
organization.
Shameless.”
Global Times said “The selection of the controversial photo also angered Chinese netizens.
Some...said it only exposes the ‘mean’ face of Western media.”
“‘See how evil they are, not respecting [her] at all,’ one user said.”
“Another Weibo user commented that the ‘smear and defame won’t stop Chinese athletes winning
honor for the country.’”
I can only assume they’re trying to say using this photo was meant to make her look
bad.
I hope someone tells that to state-run China Daily, which used this similar photo.
Oh good, someone did tell them.
They swapped it out.
Now all of this might sound...petty.
But to the Chinese Communist Party, it's a big deal.
“According to one count, in the three months before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the state-run
China Daily used the phrase ‘hurting the feelings of the Chinese people’ at least
88 times, as if the country was in a state of almost constant agonized bewilderment.”
As the Economist puts it, “The public’s supposed outrage is a useful tool: It enables
the party to put aside its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”
It also makes many countries and companies want to self censor, so they just don’t
have to deal with the madness.
But really, I think the solution is to kick the Chinese Communist Party out of the Olympics.
Or at least for countries to boycott the 2022 Olympics when they’re held in China.
And if you’d like to know more about the horrible life of Chinese Olympic athletes,
be sure to check out my old episode, the Hard life of Chinese athletes.
Link is in the description below.
And this episode is sponsored by Daily Pnut.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell, thanks for watching China Uncensored.