U.S. says it will not send officials to Beijing Winter Olympics | Hacker News Reader

U.S. says it will not send officials to Beijing Winter Olympics

reuters.com

61 points0xedb46 comments

These are pointless gestures politicians like to make to win the news coverage of the day. To make a real dent, remove China from WTO third world country status so it doesn’t benefit from all the unfair trades.

Diplomatically recognize Taiwan.

Better yet force the G7 all to do it.

It's impossible to force the G7 to do anything.

I've been saying for years we need to do just that and sign a defence pact with them.

For bonus points, as walrus01 said a couple weeks ago, call the mainland "Occupied West Taiwan".

So, according to this [0] although China is recognized as a developing country by the WTO it does not benefit from all the advantages that it would entail.

[0] https://theconversation.com/myth-busted-chinas-status-as-a-d...

aren't they given different standards for climate change initiatives?

Or, at the very least, direct gestures like this, pointless or otherwise, at the IOC.

That will just add fuel to the belt and road initiative (what a silly name). There's no reason to screw up trade between nations, unless if one wants to create a climate favouring war.

Recoognizing Taiwan would be an entirely different matter. Other states would follow suit. If the EU states and Japan would do it as well, then there's not much China can do about it except maybe start a war and attempt a Crimea style takeover, although it's not their style.

They've been preparing for a takeover of Taiwan for 30 years. They're almost ready, and the West has paid for it.

I don't think it will have any sensible impact. I appreciate for taking steps.

What Covid showed is it's a small world. If a country is not transparent and messing with things they don't fully understand and may have global consequences then it's not acceptable.

I wish the world lives in peace and harmony instead of constantly trying to show who is the boss.

Usually when people discuss boycotts of international sporting events there is always a contingent that objects with that you shouldn't mix sports and politics or that sporting competitions "build bridges". It appears no one believes that anymore? Perhaps no ever did and merely used it to excuse the boycott's target? Personally, I think that you indeed should mix sports and politics and that repressive countries like China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, etc, should be boycotted. Their leaders care about international prestige and boycotts robs them of that. So this is a good move by the US. Though more consistency in who the US condemns for human rights violations would be nice.

>consistency ... would be nice

I'd say necessary. People will assume (correctly) that this is human rights being used as a stalking horse for realpolitik. Which is frankly worse for human rights than no action at all.

In a world full of meaningless gestures, this stands out as particularly fatuous.

hasn't china already said "no non-athletes at the olympics"

No foreign spectators will be allowed. However there will be many non-athletes in attendance including coaches, referees, sports federation officials, journalists, etc.

I wonder about how well educated and how sharp thinking some people can be when reading the comments in this thread.

With many technical topics on HN the wisdom of the crowd prevails. Facts get checked, sources get cited.

But, with China all bets are off and all blinkers are on. Constructive dialogue goes out the window. Actual, indoctrinated xenophobia rears its ugly head.

Nobody on here should be dancing to the tune provided by politicians and the media. We all have the internet and thinking minds. Every one of those Olympic events has genuine fans who want to see the greatest performances by the greatest athletes currently alive. Why politicise this and spoil their enjoyment? What does that achieve?

True.

The funny one was when China became the first to ban the Boeing 737 Max.

So many hate speech against China on this well educated community.... until the rest of the world followed China within days

If it were up to me, I'd have the athletes wear uniforms that alternatively "Olympic games, presented by Xinjiang concentration camps!", "Olympic Games, presented by no idea how the Coronavirus started, because there has been no investigation allowed in China around it origins.", and "Olympic Games, don't complain if you get raped because you'll end up locked in your house like Peng Shuai."

As funny as that would be, I don't think the athletes would be safe making any kind of political statements directly.

I think that sums it up. How is it possible we are having an Olympics in such a place?

TBF we had the olympics in Nazi Germany so it's not like this is breaking some existing streak of IOC virtue.

Why do we continue to have that venue be the place where we have our athletes go then?

Because the athlets train to be the best in the world so taking that from them is punishing.

bump it up by a year and set it up in different country.

Because the international olympic committee is quite possibly the most corrupt sporting organization on the planet, which is saying something when FIFA exists.

Amen

World Athletics is up there too.

'We have had a second videocall with Peng Shuai' levels of corruption.

You may want to check out 1936 Summer Olympics.

shouldn't there be guidance that no athelete that has ever made any kind of political statement on public or semi-public forums (facebook, twitter, tiktok, google plus) is unsafe?

Guidance to whom? The CCP is going to do its own thing. There's no reason for it to listen to the IOC.

country's state departments (or their equivalents) often give guidance to their citizens travelling abroad about what sorts of safety concerns they might face.

Edit: oh i just realized I wrote "unsafe", I meant "safe".

Just emblazon them with “Remember Tiananmen Square”. I’d love to see China try and censor its own Olympics.

How about a graphic of a woman standing in front of a tank? That makes a clear point while removing the language barrier...

There's Charter rule 50 for politicization of uniforms. For which PRC athletes got warnings over in Tokyo for Mao pins. PRC will probably scrutinize thoroughly, and who knows which athlete's covid test turns positive and have to miss their event for 3 week quarantine

The US really needs to get its priorities in order first cause they could just wear shirts that mock America's slave labor prison system among many other things.

It would be easier to just boycott the Beijing olympics. Foreign athletes are probably going to spend two weeks in quarantine anyway, like it happened at the 2021 Australian Open hotel arrest.

Much simpler to just put Winnie the Pooh on the outfits.

No, not the officials!

Where they ever invited?

Nope

I'm sure the Chinese will weep due to their absence.

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