Mind Games: Censorship in China and the Beijing Olympics

Feb 10

Feb 10 Mind Games: Censorship in China and the Beijing Olympics

The Opening Games for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing are set to happen on Friday, but the games actually began in November.

The political path to the Olympics began to be carved when Peng Shuai, an Olympian and Chinese tennis player, spoke out against the former vice premier of the Chinese government. Ms. Shuai posted on the popular Chinese social media site Weibo on November 2nd, accusing her former partner Zhang Gaoli of sexually assaulting her. Within minutes, her post was wiped from the Internet. Private messages that mentioned her name were shut down, and her name returned no results on searches.

Peng Shuai was not seen for weeks after the post. Athletes such as Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Billie Jean King, and Naomi Osaka began to notice her absence, and the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?” began to trend on social media. Most recently, an artist at the Australian Open made and wore T-shirts with the question out of concern that Novak Djokovic’s vaccine battle would overshadow the tennis player’s censorship. Shuai did not attend the Open.

With the rising pressure from athletes and organisations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the Chinese government began to take action. An email allegedly written by Peng Shuai was released online, redacting her accusations against vice premier Gaoli. A video was then released online of Shuai with a tennis coach in a restaurant in Beijing. In the video, Shuai is mostly silent while the coach repeatedly tries to establish the date as November 19th. Media outlets and the chief of the WTA expressed their concern over the video and email, saying that both seemed suspicious and were clear indications of the Chinese government trying to backtrack.

The IOC held a video call with Peng Shuai on November 21st of 2021. Ms. Shuai was accompanied by a Chinese representative to the IOC and a translator for the entire conversation. According to fellow athletes and other tennis reporters, Shuai’s English is perfectly intelligible on her own. Following the phone call, Steve Simon, the head of the WTA, said that he was still not satisfied or relieved by any conversation held with Ms. Shuai. WTA officials announced that they would suspend business in China or Hong Kong, a monumental step in the relationship between athletic organizations and the Chinese government. However, the IOC and the ATP, the men’s tennis tour kept their engagements in China, leading up to the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Other events have also placed a dark shadow over the opening of the current Olympic Games. Even with the forced internment of China’s Uyghur Muslim population and the crackdown on protests in Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping has pushed forward with hosting the Olympics in Beijing and indicated that political protests will not be tolerated. The IOC hugely relies on China for its business, and has taken the opposite route to the WTA, backing down on every front to continue to have a relationship with China’s government.

When asked about the internment of Uyghur Muslims in the north of China, IOC President Thomas Bach refused to comment, maintaining a stance on the need for “political neutrality” as a sports organisation. Bach met again with Peng Shuai in Beijing after the Opening Games. When asked about whether he believed her original accusation of sexual assault, he maintained that it was not for the I.O.C. to say, despite stating earlier in January that the I.O.C. would support the tennis player in her statement. Other sponsors of the Olympic Games have taken similar apolitical stances when questioned about the Chinese government. Companies including Airbnb, Omega, Procter & Gamble, and Intel gave equally vague responses guaranteeing their support of athletes, but making no statements against Chinese policies.

With silence from the I.O.C. and private sponsors, governments have taken matters into their own hands. The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia announced diplomatic boycotts of the games in early December. Athletes from the four nations will still compete, but high-ranking officials who are usually expected to appear at the games will stay home in protest of the Chinese government’s policies.

Diplomatic boycotts keep a clear delineation between athletes and other state officials, prioritising keeping athletes safe and in the good graces of Xi Jinping’s government. The United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi further urged athletes not to aggravate Chinese officials by protesting during their events or at the games. The United States FBI has also shown concern over surveillance of athletes’ personal cell phones and has given each member of Team USA a burner phone, making them leave their own devices at home. In taking precautionary measures to protect their athletes, participating nations have shown a growing unease with China’s intolerance for dissent and surveillance policies, even towards visitors and privileged guests from other countries.

The Beijing Olympics have barely begun, but they are already embroiled in intense political and diplomatic conversations, human rights abuses, and questions of morality and business in the modern world. The International Olympic Committee has made it clear that they will not stand up to the Chinese government anytime soon, and neither will the private companies that have partnered with it. However, in a world where China is at the centre of business and a major economic power, diplomatic boycotts have a much weaker effect than corporations and huge organisations ceasing to do business. Without any severe action against it, Xi Jinping’s government will continue to go unchecked while private companies passively look on.