The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
Are just one year away.
And there will be no problems whatsoever.
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
It’s 2021, and the Olympic Games are almost upon us!
No, I’m not talking about the 2020 summer olympics in Tokyo that were postponed to 2021
because of Covid.
And which Japanese people are mostly opposed to holding at all now—because of Covid.
No, I’m talking about the much anticipated 2022 Olympics in Beijing!
Yes, the Winter Olympics—the forgotten stepchild of the good Olympics.
This month marks one year out from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
And according to Chinese state-run media, it’s just received a vote of confidence!
Which is the only vote that’s allowed in China.
Now, sure there have been some problems.
Like how the mountains near Beijing don’t...have...snow.
But that’s only a minor problem for Beijing—according to this state-run media video.
"The National Alpine Skiing Center has been built at an altitude of 2,198 meters with
great efforts."
Wait, go back.
See?
You can just cover your bare mountain slopes in artificial snow, and no one will be the
wiser.
And that’s definitely not a metaphor for anything else that happens in communist China.
It’s like how ahead of the 2008 Olympics, they spray painted the grass green.
At least there was grass there in the first place.
So I say, why bother to even make fake snow for 2022—when you can just spray paint the
rocks white!
This way you can have the Winter Olympics and the X Games all in one!
Of course, there’s one other pesky little problem with the 2022 Winter Olympics: A lot
of human rights groups want to boycott it.
As Hong Kong Free Press put it last week, “China will host the first genocide Olympics”.
Which, I don’t think is fair.
It’s actually the second Genocide Olympics.
The first one was when Beijing held the Olympics in 2008.
But at least Beijing will be the first city in the world to host both a Summer and Winter
Genocide Olympics.
Truly historic.
And for all those who are concerned, don’t worry: There won’t be any genocide happening
*at* the Olympics.
It will be happening at the *same time* as the Olympics, but in a totally different part
of China.
Where we can all ignore it while talking about how impressive the opening ceremony is.
Nonetheless, the calls for a boycott are growing.
Last week, a group of UK Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum called
for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
As MP Ed Davey put it, “Our brightest and best athletes should not be forced to be part
of a propaganda exercise for the Chinese Communist party while it tries to wipe the Uighur people
off the face of the planet.”
They’re calling for British athletes to simply not participate, unless the 2022 Olympics
is moved to another country that doesn’t have these kinds of human rights abuses.
I know, it’s hard to move the Olympics only one year out.
But there *are* other cities that already have all the infrastructure for the Winter
Olympics...and totally different kinds of human rights abuses.
See, the ones in Russia were the Gulag Games.
I hope you realize by now that no matter how bad human right abuses get, the International
Olympics Committee really doesn’t give a hoot.
Because as the former head of the IOC once said, “we stand for human rights...but we
are only a sports organization.”
That’s from the same 2007 interview where he said he believed the upcoming 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games would “be a force for good.”
How’d that turn out?
Anyway, there are still calls for a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
And the Chinese Communist Party wants you to know, they don’t care.
As my favorite state-run media The Global Times says, the forces inciting a boycott
of the Winter Olympics will never succeed.
Because their “extreme claims...will never be widely echoed”.
And to prove how little China cares, they will ‘seriously sanction’ any country
that boycotts the Winter Olympics.
This also shows that China opposes politicizing the Beijing Winter Olympics.
To be clear, it’s other countries’ boycotts that are politicizing things, not China’s
revenge sanctions.
Those are not political.
Now I’m not saying these threats haven’t worked to stop the boycotts.
But they also haven’t not worked.
“The US has said it had no intention of telling its athletes not to go.”
Yeah.
Sometimes you just gotta cooperate with China, despite the genocide.
And Canada has taken it one step further.
The Canadian Olympic Committee is warning its athletes not to even criticize China.
Which, sadly, might be good advice—if those athletes want to be allowed to leave China.
Unlike all the Canadians that have been detained there.
There were calls for boycotts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, too.
But in the end, no countries boycotted.
But even without an Olympic boycott, people around the world found ways to highlight China’s
human rights abuses.
Like when Beijing had the brilliant idea to bring their Olympic torch relay around the
world.
And then people protested it.
At every...
Stop...
Along...
The...
Way.
It was pretty embarrassing for the Chinese Communist Party, what with people around the
world airing their dirty laundry.
But despite, or perhaps because of, the global embarrassment, the Chinese Communist Party
promised to allow protests during the Olympics.
They even set up special zones inside three Beijing parks, where people would be allowed
to protest.
All protesters had to do first was “obtain permits from the local police”.
And you can guess how that worked out: really well!
For the police.
Who just arrested protesters ahead of time.
Pre-crime—I’m telling you—it works.
So now that we’ve learned from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, will anything change for
the 2022 Beijing Olympics?
Although there is more awareness globally about the Chinese Communist Party’s human
right abuses, and their attempt to influence the rest of the world, it’s still unlikely
there will be an Olympics boycott.
Historically, there have been two major boycotts of Olympic games.
During the Cold War, the US, Canada, and more than 60 countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow
Olympics.
The US boycotted because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In return, the Soviet Union and a group of mostly communist countries boycotted the 1984
Los Angeles Olympics.
And since the US has said it has no plans to boycott the Beijing Olympics, it’s unlikely
other countries will.
However, now some human rights groups are calling for a different type of boycott—a
diplomatic boycott.
That means that countries would let their athletes compete in the Olympics, but they
wouldn’t send a high-level official to attend.
That way, they take away some of the soft power that the Chinese Communist Party gets
from hosting the event.
Will any countries do that?
It’s still too soon to say.
So despite all the protests ahead of the 2022 Olympics...
It looks like the 2022 Beijing Games are going to go ahead as planned.
Snow or no snow.
And I think this is a terrible mistake.
Because what *should* happen, is the Chinese Communist Party should *welcome* other countries
to boycott the Olympics.
Especially all the countries with the best athletes.
Because then, China can win all the gold medals for themselves.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from one of you, a viewer who directly supports
China Uncensored by contributing a dollar or more per episode on the crowdfunding website
Patreon.
Casey asks: “Are coin collectors unintentionally rewarding
the CCP by purchasing gold and silver panda coins?’
I think the real question, Casey, is why would anyone want to collect a panda-anything?
Pandas are the very symbol of Beijing’s propaganda.
“Oh, we’re so cute, look at us.
The Communist Party is so soft and cuddly.
We could never forcibly harvest your organs.”
No!
It’s a lie!
Don’t fall for it!
Argh, stop!
So yes, don’t buy China’s stupid panda coins.
Also, if you buy a gold coin from China, would you really trust that it’s made entirely
of real gold?
Thanks for your question, Casey.
Be like Casey, and support China Uncensored.
Viewer support is the main way we fund China Uncensored.
Go to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.