Sabrina Maddeaux: Beijing Olympics opening ceremony barely covers monster under the mask - National Post

The IOC isn’t known for its bravery or strict moral code

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Feb 04, 2022 • 3 hours ago • 4 minute read • 47 Comments

Torch bearers Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Jiawen Zhao of Team China hold the Olympic flame during the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium on February 04, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

From the first moments of the Beijing 2022 Olympic opening ceremony, it was clear China had a story it wanted to sell. All countries do when they host the games, but Beijing is a city both particularly skilled and committed to the art of political propaganda.

Back in 2008, the story was about a new power arriving on the world stage. It took place on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the new millennium (eight is a number associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture). It opened with 2,008 drummers playing perfectly in sync and only got more grandiose from there. Chinese space exploration was celebrated via a 60-foot, 16-tonne ball structure that represented the Earth, which then transformed into a glowing Chinese lantern. It was not subtle.

While optimistic observers took this to mean China wanted to open up to the world and even democratic norms, the reality was China wanted to mold the globe in its image. Since then, we’ve seen the rise of “wolf warrior” diplomacy and an increasingly aggressive and incorrigible Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Now China doesn’t only want to show strength, it wants to brand itself as a benevolent, gentle giant. It wants to use the power it has amassed since 2008 to control its narrative not just domestically, but globally, and silence critics.

This time the ceremony took place on the first of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar, marking the beginning of spring. It opened with softly swaying performers holding large light tubes meant to symbolize grass. Projections of butterflies fluttered around the stadium. Cheerful music from “The Nutcracker” played during the Parade of Nations, a feel-good classic clearly chosen for its psychological impact rather than its hype value.

Other highlights included a snowflake-themed dance, children singing with illuminated faux white doves, and a final act that looked like a restaging of the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney World.

The Olympic torch was lit by Chinese skiers Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Zhao Jiawen, which was notable not just for its message of gender equality, but because Yilamujiang is an ethnic Uyghur from Xinjiang, where China has been accused of horrible human rights abuses. The choice was clearly meant to undermine Western democracies amid criticism and boycotts –– the Olympic equivalent of the “but some of my best friends are Black” defence.

But no one should be fooled by the show Beijing put on. You don’t have to look far to see the monster under the mask. Take, for example, excited athletes capturing the opening moments on their phones. Except, for many, those aren’t their real phones. They’re burner phones. Many national Olympic committees warned their teams to bring disposable devices due to security and privacy concerns in China’s surveillance state.

These same athletes will be expected to bite their tongues when it comes to any criticism of China, particularly as it relates to the country’s human rights record. Chinese officials made it clear there will be no exemptions to their draconian rules with punishment on the table for anyone who dares defy them. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has fallen in line, not only refusing to speak out against China, but advising athletes to follow the host nation’s rules.

The IOC isn’t known for its bravery or strict moral code. No one expected IOC president Thomas Bach’s opening ceremony speech to contain anything but positive sentiments, but I also didn’t expect it to be quite so explicitly hypocritical and kow-towing to CCP propaganda. Watching him say athletes can show “how the world could look like if we all respect the same rules and each other,” and boast how there will be “no discrimination whatsoever” in the Olympic village was sure rich as his organization overlooks China’s rule-breaking and rights abuses, particularly against the Uyghurs.

He continued, “This is the mission of the Olympic games, bringing us together in peaceful competition, always building bridges, never erecting walls. Uniting humankind in all our diversity.” This in a country that literally erected walls and gutted neighbourhoods to keep less aesthetically pleasing buildings and their residents out of public view for the 2008 Olympics. In a country that rejects peaceful competition between nations in favour of espionage, destabilization, and relentless aggression. In a country accused of genocide.

Bach did not have to go as far as he did to appease Beijing, and in doing so he exposed his organization as not just one that turns a blind eye, but actively enables authoritarian regimes.

Shortly thereafter “Imagine,” the Olympics’ unofficial anthem, filled the stadium, bringing the entire spectacle to the edge of parody. If there’s anything good to come out of Beijing hosting these Games, it’s that the IOC’s moral bankruptcy is becoming near impossible to ignore and will be relentlessly broadcasted over the next two weeks.

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2022-02-04 20:44:50Z
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