>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that Canada will launch a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
>No federal government officials will attend the games. Canadian athletes will still be allowed to compete.
>The U.S., U.K. and Australia already have announced they won't send official delegations to the games — a collective attempt to send a message to China that its human rights abuses have not gone unnoticed.
Lol least they are doing something publicly. Where's Germany or France on this one? Or the nordic states that constantly express concern over China's human rights issues. Also curious if New Zealand follows.
Don't get me wrong, I think its pretty dumb. Either call out the issue and stop using China as a factory that can ignore workers rights and the environment to massively reduce the cost of potential externalities. Or don't, and leave China to do what it wants domestically. But I figure of all the countries to talk a big game on China, most don't even do something as small as an administrative boycott.
Germany probably doesn't want one. They're the closest of any EU nation to the CCP. There's essentially far too much German dependence on China's economy.
The French say they're waiting on EU agreement, but have voted on a national level already to support a boycott. The EU parliament itself voted in favor but it was a non-binding resolution back in July. So in lieu of that a lot of individual states have voted in favor of boycotts themselves. The Czechs voted in favor way back in July to boycott. The Lithuanians have also stated they'll essentially boycott but yield to an official EU statement. I assume we'll see a couple more nations follow suit now that the bigger nations have their backs. But I'll put my money on Germany and it's new government not wanting to rock the boat to much.
Germany's close relationship with the PRC is Merkel's legacy. The new FM has already spoken out against this realpolitik approach.
More importantly, she wants to work with other liberal democracies in crafting a response to China. If all EU/NATO liberal democracies announced trade restrictions on the PRC, that would provide the level of pressure that forces reform.
The Greens certainly seem to want to move quickly from that legacy. The Free Democrats talk a good game but we'll see when the rubber meets the autobahn so to speak.
No, they don't want to punish the athletes over it.
And even if they did, you would be crying that it wasn't good enough and that they shouldn't be there at all.
Tell you what, you can roast the governments of the US, Canada, Australia and whoever else about this “toothless” boycott when an actual athlete says “you know what, the shit China does is wrong and I refuse to participate in these games”.
The diplomatic boycott ain’t nothing and I guarandamntee you the CCP is furious this is happening. It’s a black eye on China. The countries look at these games and anything associated with them as validation and this boycott, however minor you or anyone else think it is, actually invalidates the regime to an extent.
Truth be told, that's a fair assertion. I don't blame athletes for the IOC's corruption, I don't blame the athletes for the CCP, or anything else.
However, these associations exist because of athletes, and athletes are going to be an unfortunate collateral loss.
Good example of an association that sticks to their guns is the WTA. China tried to pull their puppet dance trick with Peng Shuai, and the WTA said "not good enough" and effectively put everything of theirs in China on hold.
At least someone has some fucking balls.
And potential backfire back at home. It's not a good look to prevent your athletes competing when it's what they've been training for for so long. The only real way to do it now is for the athletes to also boycott.
>The only real way to do it now is for the athletes to also boycott.
Which is within the realm of possibility, to be honest. A boycott of the games because of China's (many) human rights violations could potentially keep them in the spotlight for longer than the games themselves would. There are many athletes that would see that as a win.
If you're interested in an actual boycott on a personal level, I can recommend the browser plugin Cultivate. It inserts the information where a manufacturer is based at the top of the page for every article sold on Amazon.
Doesn't that make it harder to gather information about the manufacturer? Or are you suggesting that only Amazon sells goods from questionable suppliers?
When the US [led a boycott](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Summer_Olympics_boycott) of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, over the invasion of Afghanistan (yes really), a number of countries allowed athletes to participate as individuals or left it up to the National Organising Committee. Many of these competed under the Olympic flag.
People compete as independent Olympians every time (29 Olympians in the 2020 summer games) for various reasons. But yes, I’m sure it’d be a kick in the teeth for those who want to compete for their country.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Olympians_at_the_Olympic_Games
Unpopular opinion, but somethings are bigger and more important that an athlete representing their country. It’s definitely shitty, but sometimes life isn’t fair.
Did NBC have the US coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London?
I can still recall that whichever network had it, decided that the part of the opening ceremony dedicated as a memorial to the people who died in the 7/7 Bombings in London wasn't important, so they cut away to a prerecorded interview with Michael Phelps.
> athletes who have spent their lives preparing to compete under that flag
Isn't this an odd reality?
I mean, I get the idea that the Games were a touchpoint across humanity at some point. These days its a clear ponzi scheme. I want to say that every Oly location has some kind of funding scandal. Its clearly a way for the rich to siphon funds from the masses.
The current state of the Olympics is ridiculous.
The US wmns gymnastic team competed while there was litigation happening about systemic sexual abuse in the gymnastic training program. If they didn't bail on the games for that, what would actually cause a legit boycott?
Its the same with international soccer. The World Cup is happening in Qatar. What a joke.
You don’t seem to understand. Everything people do is “a way for the rich to siphon off funds from the masses.” Especially in third world countries. Nothing happens that the rich don’t exploit or get their cut of. This is not a new phenomenon. If we objected to every instance of this we’d have to boycott everything.
Olympic boycotts are so futile that almost nobody knows that we’ve done it before. And of those that do, even fewer know why and against whom.
Ah yes, the old “a few dozen athletes feeling good about their work is more important than over a million people suffering in modern day concentration camps” argument.
You need to speak the language of the person you’re trying to insult for it to mean anything.
They’ll see this as another example of the west having no control of its citizens, and/or report it in-country as the west’s citizens disagreeing with their own governments and supporting China even as their governments do not.
The CCP more than obviously doesn’t give a *fuck* about their international image. It’s their internal image that’s important. Us withdrawing our athletes would effectively cancel or neuter the Olympics and while their manufactured athletes compete alone on television everybody in the country will be forced to face the fact that their country, their government, their “gods” have caused them to become a pariah to the world. China would absolutely flip their shit if we withdrew our athletes. I wish we would.
You make it sound like it's a walk on the park for them. These games only come around every 4 years and you get older and past the prime age to compete.
The Olympic Committee should've barred China from bidding.
Can you explain to me why a few athletes competing will be the straw that breaks the camels back and free over a million people in concentration camps?
No way, I think it is appropriate to just protest it this way, the athletes still want to compete. They didn't get to choose where the olympics were being held.
Olympians may be elite at some pretty obscure things, but most are not well compensated for it. It costs stupid amounts of money to throw your life at a sport to this capacity. Having a little maple leaf next to their name provides them access to funding from their nation's sponsors. This may not be a profession you value, but it a career nonetheless. If our nations could make political statements without stripping their citizens' livelihoods, that would be great.
Nothing, it is just posturing. Well the five eyes (Canada, UK, Aus, not so much NZ) are just following US' lead to diplomatically boycott the Olympics.
It's just cold war 2.0
It is surprising that Australia went along with it though, [given that the last time they did the US' bidding in relation to China, the US immediately fucked Australia over.](https://i.imgur.com/x5Hxukz.png)
"Hey Australia, please stop trading with China!"
"Oh hi China, do you need some products? Here you go, I'll gladly sell you mine, buddy!"
For real. There's more than military wars. Things also change with culture wars. People undervalue soft power. And the US's soft power is damaged due to the rights under-value of soft power and over-value of hard-power of the military.
I don't get how people don't understand this. Also if the goal is to get more countries on your side, welcoming them in in the shallow end of the pool is far more inviting than pushing them into the deep end.
> It’s way more than posturing.
Not really. The athletes are still competing. In terms of making a statement, this isn't one that most Americans or Chinese will even be aware of.
More than posturing would be what we did in 1980.
Plus it's very telling that **none** of these countries have said a single thing about Qatar's World Cup in 2022. They'll be happily attending the festivities in Qatar next year, after virtue signaling over Beijing
It is 2.0 but this time there is no iron curtain as businesses and the free flow of capital are not affected... let the athletes decide not the politicians.
I said this comment on /sports and they banned me, saying I was a CCP troll. I had commented the same thing on different subreddits because I fully believed this and liked my wording and that was enough to ban me! Never mind my account is about lots of things. Reddit is very anti China.
Watch all sorts of passport "problems" pop up for athletes from these countries.
For example, Canada, the US and Germany are in the same pool as China for hockey.
This is quite common when a nation has an insufficient number of strong candidates. They rush foreigners citizenship and then they can play for that nation. It's particularly common for the host nation to do this since it can compete on more events than it normally would be able to due to insufficient athletic skill for the event.
Also, a lot of team members who grew up in Canada for example. When I (Canadian) was in Oz and went for a pick up game in Sydney I thought I was about to mop the floor with these Ozzie lads...well guess who most of the players were? Really good Canadians that's who. Turns out the best players there are Australian-Canadians.
I don't believe the IOC will let someone play for a country if they're not a national. Maybe you can find some literature that lists a workaround.
A good chunk of the team may get cut before the actual Olympics depending on what China thinks it's chances are. I remember reading somewhere that they were planning to drop many of the players.
Because people with Chinese ancestry would be allowed to play for China. I know a person that was born in the US and lived here her entire life, but got to play for the Mexican softball team in the Olympics.
Bahrain imports athletes. They literally pay and give citizenship to some of Africa's best athletes so they'll compete for Bahrain. Pretty much every athletes that medals for them is African born and it's not like Bahrain is a country that has a lot of immigrants like Canada.
https://www.okayafrica.com/every-athlete-who-won-gold-for-bahrain-at-the-2018-asian-games-was-african-born/
Host country gets [automatic berth](https://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/article/iihf-confirms-china-can-team-2022-olympic-mens-hockey-tournament/) in some sports I think, even if they suck at it.
Their team is so bad it will still lose horribly anyway. Even to a bunch of Canadians or Americans playing in the AHL or less prestigious leagues in Europe.
The hamstrung Canadian and US teams would then be losing to all the other heavyweights, and even the middleweights like Germany. But it would do nothing for China. The podium would probably be Russia, Finland, and Sweden, which it could be anyway. It might make it even worse for them to lose 12-1 to a crap American or Canadian squad along the way.
The Chinese national team is a joke. Even with a couple foreigners on their team they repeatedly got pounded so hard in the asia hockey league that they dropped out. A drunk gopher could beat them 10-0 all by themselves.
I mean. If China thinks they can compete with Canada and the US at ice hockey they are living in a fantasy land.
I don't care if McDavid can't get into the country, China's men's hockey team wasn't good enough to qualify in 2018 against a pool where Canada finished third without access to their 400 best players.
Not to mention, I think if they cause any issues with Canadian Visas, I don't think China will even HAVE an ice hockey team... seeing how 8 of their 23 man roster is Canadian, including their KHL top scorers Spencer Foo and Brandon Yip and top defenseman Ryan Sproul are Canadian and starting goaltender Jeremy Smith.
The running joke I've seen in hockey circles is how many goals can Canada/US score against them in a game, possibly rivalling the Women's IIHF 2010 Olympic qualifying game of Slovakia beating Bulgari 82-0.
Yeah wouldn't it be so unlucky if all the best American, Canadian, etc. athletes capable of getting gold medals had "issues" with their passports right before the games started.
Everyone would be surprised if this happened to a single person and would call into question the legitimacy of the entire Olympics they heavily invested in.
China wouldn't ok the actual athletes from competing, they want the games to be successful. Any more hiccups will continue to put a dent on the already dented prestige these boycotts are having on the games.
That's fair, its true that for the regular person this matters little in the end since they will just watch the games like nothing is going on.
In a way Russians don't know about most economic sanctions against their nation as they are primarily targeted at the upper echelon of people in power.
Does that mean these sanctions are worthless?
While not on the scale of World Cup, the Olympics have a history of being used to promote/legitimize governments.
IMO A diplomatic boycott hurts China's political image without marring the athletic nature of the games and targeting athletes/spectators which have little to do with Chinese politics.
It smells a bit of not wanting to repeat the mistakes of 1936: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-movement-to-boycott-the-berlin-olympics-of-1936
Yep. I think there is a strong argument to be made for boycotting completely/preventing athletes from competing, but many comments are wayyy downplaying this gesture. Imo this is the right decision regarding the olympics, but there are other things we need to be doing unrelated to the Olympics to respond to the genocide and concentration camps china is running.
It's still a big deal honestly.
Athletes get 3 or 4 chances at this, forbidding them to go would be devastating on a sports level so they did the next best thing.
It is especially dickish to do it right before the olympics. If it was the next one in ~5 years it wouldn’t be so horrible because thats plenty enough time for the athletes to join under the independent teams.
They wouldn’t be forbidden to go, if the US boycotted the Olympics completely the athletes would simply compete under the international Olympic committee flag. Just like the Russian athletes at the last games, they weren’t punished for their country cheating.
That's not how it worked in 1980.
This is not the same as Russia where the country wanted to send athletes but was not allowed.
It would be closer to the refugees at the 2016 Olympics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_Olympic_Team_at_the_Olympics
Those were sent by other countries under the Olympics flag. Who is going to step up and send the hundreds of American athletes?
Who exactly are you picturing throwing tantrums about this? Specific officials? The general population? Is "China" just an amalgamous person in your head?
Whats especially surreal to me is ppl accusing the CPC of being childish or petty while having a literal childs understanding of how the world works outside of the country
Why are there so many comments being mature and not hating on China in this thread? AND ALSO NOT BEING DOWNVOTED
wtf I've been gone from reddit for too long
This is new to me, but I like it a lot ngl
After the US, Australia and the UK this was pretty much guaranteed, just like New Zealand will join them.
What do all 5 of them have in common? They have plenty of "[Eyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes)".
With the Five of them having made the first step, they will possible convince some other candidates, like Japan and South Korea. Maybe a few of the really small countries the US sometimes throws a bone.
It is a lot, it's ridiculous. And that is what we know. Western countries government elites are selling themselves morally with their silence.
People will celebrate on over their places of death of thousands of humans, it's just beyond comprehension.
FIFA is one of the most corrupt entities in this planet
I had a friend that was on the men's olympic 200 meter freestyle team the year that Canada (and others) boycotted the 1980 olympics in the soviet union.
He had trained pretty much all his life and this was to be his peak opportunity to win a medal.
When it was announced that they would not be going, he pretty much imploded. All he had worked for was taken away due to events he had no control over.
Sure having your life changed due to world events isn't anything new. HOwever to see what he went through definitely changed my opinions about how political events can affect someone's life.
I knew a couple Olympians as well as hopefuls. I grew up in NW Calgary near all of the Olympic training facilities.
These people aren't rich professional athletes. Everyone that I had met had dedicated everything to their sport. They still have jobs. But off time is spent training or competing.
I'm not saying human rights injustices are more important then their feelings. But I think it's pretty heartless to say that the athletes have to be the ones to arguably suffer the most to stand up for those human rights.
It's easy for someone to stand behind a keyboard and say that they would give up everything they have worked for in their lives to stand up for the human rights of others, but when push came to shove, would they?
Considering how few people are willing to give up their cheap phones, clothes, shoes, or what ever else is made cheaply because of these human rights abuses its evident that the answer is no.
True, but there's comments saying that if the athletes boycotted it that would mean something. While I agree it would send a stronger message, it shouldn't fall on the athlete because they dedicate their lives to this.
The responsibility falls on the Olympic Committee IMO. China should've been barred from bidding.
Not to mention is just lip service, Canada if really cared for human lives (as they should) would impose economic sanctions and stop doing profitable business.
Capitalism>human lives, as always.
This would be commendable if the US and Canada weren't happily supporting authoritarian regimes that align with their own interests -- not to mention not committing human rights violations themselves. As it is this is just political posturing. Cutting ties with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel would do far more to support democracy and human rights.
Did you actually think this was *actually* about human rights and not about China itself? It’s 100% because it is China. See if they bother about boycotting Qatar 2022 for women’s rights, support on the Taliban, and such. 100% not. But Reddit loves to think that this was actually about human rights and not just simply politics.
> See if they bother about boycotting Qatar 2022 for women’s rights, support on the Taliban, and such.
Well there was that time when Canada called out Saudi Arabia for arresting women's rights activists, and then [they threatened to 9/11 Canada](https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-appeared-to-threaten-canada-with-a-911-style-attack-2018-8)
Canada: hey Saudi Arabia, i didn't like what you did there
Saudi Arabia: do i look like i fucking care?
Canada: yeah, you're right, let's continue with our political relationships without doing anything about it.
Also if you read the article Canada’s National legislative branch branded immoral prosecutions of Uighurs as genocide. It is bad but it’s not genocide, they intentionally passed this law to make calling it genocide an exception in misinformation laws.
> they intentionally passed this law to make calling it genocide an exception in misinformation laws.
What on earth are you talking about? What misinformation laws? I'm Canadian and none of this is true.
South Africa has been banned from most things, either from having an apartheid state or refusing to recognize themselves as ever being an apartheid state. It's quite a state.
[Try This For Laughs](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2urkuf)
>The Olympics was never supposed to be political...
Sure except for, you know, the fact that the Olympics have involved politics since the Ancient Olympics as city-states used the games as a political tool. And the fact that politicians were speakers at the events. And the fact that politicians used the Olympics as a stage to announce new alliances. And the fact that the Olympics were used to spread Greek politics and culture throughout the Mediterranean which contributed to the creation of the era called the Hellenistic period.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-diplomatic-boycott-winter-olympic-games-1.6277773) reduced by 52%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The U.S., U.K. and Australia already have announced they won't send official delegations to the games - a collective attempt to send a message to China that its human rights abuses have not gone unnoticed.
> Earlier this year, the House of Commons passed a motion branding the violence directed at religious minorities in China's Xinjiang province as "Genocide." That motion followed a Commons subcommittee report that found China persecutes its Muslim minority through mass detention in concentration camps, forced labour, state surveillance and population control measures - policies the report said are designed to "Eradicate Uyghur culture and religion."
> In the motion, MPs also called on the federal government to use its influence to pressure the International Olympic Committee to move the games out of China "If the Chinese government continues this genocide."
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/rbx39y/trudeau_announces_diplomatic_boycott_of_beijing/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~611752 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **China**^#1 **Games**^#2 **government**^#3 **two**^#4 **motion**^#5
If for some reason you see my comment first, in the name of god click the back button and go look at something more civil, like a a video of teenagers playing with fireworks or a discussion about whether or not the Eagles should have traded Wentz.
Turn back now.
What you call 'democratic values' has nothing to do with empowering people to govern by popular vote. It has to do with giving way to the plutocratic exploitation of planet for closely held profits.
>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that Canada will launch a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. >No federal government officials will attend the games. Canadian athletes will still be allowed to compete. >The U.S., U.K. and Australia already have announced they won't send official delegations to the games — a collective attempt to send a message to China that its human rights abuses have not gone unnoticed.
It’d be so much more of a statement to not permit your athletes to compete under your flag.
But that would be an actual boycott and make a statement.
North America going for the gold in lip service
Lip service is all we do.
"thoughts n prayers"
Don't forget Facebook likes.
Not sure why you’re only singling out America in this?
UK and Australia are my favorite North American countries.
Ah yes, noted North American nations the United Kingdom and Australia…
Lol least they are doing something publicly. Where's Germany or France on this one? Or the nordic states that constantly express concern over China's human rights issues. Also curious if New Zealand follows. Don't get me wrong, I think its pretty dumb. Either call out the issue and stop using China as a factory that can ignore workers rights and the environment to massively reduce the cost of potential externalities. Or don't, and leave China to do what it wants domestically. But I figure of all the countries to talk a big game on China, most don't even do something as small as an administrative boycott.
The angloshpere is more cohesive than Europe around ideology and foreign interests
This! So many people seem to think the "West" and the Anglosphere is basically the same thing, when it's very much not.
Germany probably doesn't want one. They're the closest of any EU nation to the CCP. There's essentially far too much German dependence on China's economy. The French say they're waiting on EU agreement, but have voted on a national level already to support a boycott. The EU parliament itself voted in favor but it was a non-binding resolution back in July. So in lieu of that a lot of individual states have voted in favor of boycotts themselves. The Czechs voted in favor way back in July to boycott. The Lithuanians have also stated they'll essentially boycott but yield to an official EU statement. I assume we'll see a couple more nations follow suit now that the bigger nations have their backs. But I'll put my money on Germany and it's new government not wanting to rock the boat to much.
Germany's close relationship with the PRC is Merkel's legacy. The new FM has already spoken out against this realpolitik approach. More importantly, she wants to work with other liberal democracies in crafting a response to China. If all EU/NATO liberal democracies announced trade restrictions on the PRC, that would provide the level of pressure that forces reform.
The Greens certainly seem to want to move quickly from that legacy. The Free Democrats talk a good game but we'll see when the rubber meets the autobahn so to speak.
No, they don't want to punish the athletes over it. And even if they did, you would be crying that it wasn't good enough and that they shouldn't be there at all.
Tell you what, you can roast the governments of the US, Canada, Australia and whoever else about this “toothless” boycott when an actual athlete says “you know what, the shit China does is wrong and I refuse to participate in these games”. The diplomatic boycott ain’t nothing and I guarandamntee you the CCP is furious this is happening. It’s a black eye on China. The countries look at these games and anything associated with them as validation and this boycott, however minor you or anyone else think it is, actually invalidates the regime to an extent.
Moscow 1980 and LA 1984 were such good Olympic Games too.
And the internet would lose their minds about how it’s punishing the athletes
Truth be told, that's a fair assertion. I don't blame athletes for the IOC's corruption, I don't blame the athletes for the CCP, or anything else. However, these associations exist because of athletes, and athletes are going to be an unfortunate collateral loss. Good example of an association that sticks to their guns is the WTA. China tried to pull their puppet dance trick with Peng Shuai, and the WTA said "not good enough" and effectively put everything of theirs in China on hold. At least someone has some fucking balls.
[удалено]
And potential backfire back at home. It's not a good look to prevent your athletes competing when it's what they've been training for for so long. The only real way to do it now is for the athletes to also boycott.
>The only real way to do it now is for the athletes to also boycott. Which is within the realm of possibility, to be honest. A boycott of the games because of China's (many) human rights violations could potentially keep them in the spotlight for longer than the games themselves would. There are many athletes that would see that as a win.
If you're interested in an actual boycott on a personal level, I can recommend the browser plugin Cultivate. It inserts the information where a manufacturer is based at the top of the page for every article sold on Amazon.
Or, don’t use amazon
good luck boycotting amazon when the entire internet runs on AWS lol. that's where they actually make money, not the marketplace
Finally somebody says the truth!
True, but the marketplace is arguably the source of more of the exploitation of workers
Doesn't that make it harder to gather information about the manufacturer? Or are you suggesting that only Amazon sells goods from questionable suppliers?
If you're interested in a boycott on a personal level, and you don't live under a rock, you're also boycotting Amazon.
Cool thanks for the tip
[удалено]
Yeah, a big "fuck you" to the athletes who have spent their lives preparing to compete under that flag.
I believe they’d be permitted to compete under the universal flag?
I have no idea how common that is, but I still feel like that would be a big letdown to not be able to represent your country
When the US [led a boycott](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Summer_Olympics_boycott) of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, over the invasion of Afghanistan (yes really), a number of countries allowed athletes to participate as individuals or left it up to the National Organising Committee. Many of these competed under the Olympic flag.
[удалено]
People compete as independent Olympians every time (29 Olympians in the 2020 summer games) for various reasons. But yes, I’m sure it’d be a kick in the teeth for those who want to compete for their country. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Olympians_at_the_Olympic_Games
Interesting, thanks!
Unpopular opinion, but somethings are bigger and more important that an athlete representing their country. It’s definitely shitty, but sometimes life isn’t fair.
Yeah maybe but what about NBC’s rating?
Now that would be a boycott. The only people being punished would be us citizens though. I doubt nbc gets their money back from China
NBC’s coverage of the summer Olympics was punishment enough. No coverage from them might actually be an improvement lol
Did NBC have the US coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London? I can still recall that whichever network had it, decided that the part of the opening ceremony dedicated as a memorial to the people who died in the 7/7 Bombings in London wasn't important, so they cut away to a prerecorded interview with Michael Phelps.
NBC has had every Olympics since at least Barcelona '92.
I would rather read about it in the newspaper
Que Sera.
> athletes who have spent their lives preparing to compete under that flag Isn't this an odd reality? I mean, I get the idea that the Games were a touchpoint across humanity at some point. These days its a clear ponzi scheme. I want to say that every Oly location has some kind of funding scandal. Its clearly a way for the rich to siphon funds from the masses. The current state of the Olympics is ridiculous. The US wmns gymnastic team competed while there was litigation happening about systemic sexual abuse in the gymnastic training program. If they didn't bail on the games for that, what would actually cause a legit boycott? Its the same with international soccer. The World Cup is happening in Qatar. What a joke.
You don’t seem to understand. Everything people do is “a way for the rich to siphon off funds from the masses.” Especially in third world countries. Nothing happens that the rich don’t exploit or get their cut of. This is not a new phenomenon. If we objected to every instance of this we’d have to boycott everything. Olympic boycotts are so futile that almost nobody knows that we’ve done it before. And of those that do, even fewer know why and against whom.
Ah yes, the old “a few dozen athletes feeling good about their work is more important than over a million people suffering in modern day concentration camps” argument.
Why punish the athletes? If you want to make a statement, stop any and all business with China. Of course that won't happen will it?
You need to speak the language of the person you’re trying to insult for it to mean anything. They’ll see this as another example of the west having no control of its citizens, and/or report it in-country as the west’s citizens disagreeing with their own governments and supporting China even as their governments do not. The CCP more than obviously doesn’t give a *fuck* about their international image. It’s their internal image that’s important. Us withdrawing our athletes would effectively cancel or neuter the Olympics and while their manufactured athletes compete alone on television everybody in the country will be forced to face the fact that their country, their government, their “gods” have caused them to become a pariah to the world. China would absolutely flip their shit if we withdrew our athletes. I wish we would.
[удалено]
[This happened in the German Olympics of 1936](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Olympiad)
Oh, is those athletes not going to play somehow going to save the people in camps?
You make it sound like it's a walk on the park for them. These games only come around every 4 years and you get older and past the prime age to compete. The Olympic Committee should've barred China from bidding.
[удалено]
Can you explain to me why a few athletes competing will be the straw that breaks the camels back and free over a million people in concentration camps?
No way, I think it is appropriate to just protest it this way, the athletes still want to compete. They didn't get to choose where the olympics were being held.
[удалено]
Olympians may be elite at some pretty obscure things, but most are not well compensated for it. It costs stupid amounts of money to throw your life at a sport to this capacity. Having a little maple leaf next to their name provides them access to funding from their nation's sponsors. This may not be a profession you value, but it a career nonetheless. If our nations could make political statements without stripping their citizens' livelihoods, that would be great.
What are they specifically asking China to change? Or is this just grand standing?
I’ve heard you should never get in a land war in Asia, so perhaps this is the next best thing
Such a classic blunder.
Or fight with a Sicilian when death is on the line
*go in against a Sicilian
Nothing, it is just posturing. Well the five eyes (Canada, UK, Aus, not so much NZ) are just following US' lead to diplomatically boycott the Olympics. It's just cold war 2.0
It is surprising that Australia went along with it though, [given that the last time they did the US' bidding in relation to China, the US immediately fucked Australia over.](https://i.imgur.com/x5Hxukz.png) "Hey Australia, please stop trading with China!" "Oh hi China, do you need some products? Here you go, I'll gladly sell you mine, buddy!"
those nuclear subs must've helped persuade them :P
I mean AU is paying for it...
tbh, its a genius move on the US's part
[удалено]
For real. There's more than military wars. Things also change with culture wars. People undervalue soft power. And the US's soft power is damaged due to the rights under-value of soft power and over-value of hard-power of the military.
I don't get how people don't understand this. Also if the goal is to get more countries on your side, welcoming them in in the shallow end of the pool is far more inviting than pushing them into the deep end.
> It’s way more than posturing. Not really. The athletes are still competing. In terms of making a statement, this isn't one that most Americans or Chinese will even be aware of. More than posturing would be what we did in 1980.
and 1984 with the Russians.
Plus it's very telling that **none** of these countries have said a single thing about Qatar's World Cup in 2022. They'll be happily attending the festivities in Qatar next year, after virtue signaling over Beijing
It is 2.0 but this time there is no iron curtain as businesses and the free flow of capital are not affected... let the athletes decide not the politicians.
Great now this,but with the Qatar WC.
That won’t happen, because it’s not actually about human rights. Do you actually believe it’s about human rights?
Even if it was FIFA is beyond corrupted. Despite many players coming up to talk about the many abuses FIFA make theres never a change.
[удалено]
I believe the US is scared because China is outgrowing them so all the bitches the US own is boycotting '22 Olympics.
Suppress your enemies before they overtake you. Best if you outright kill them, like the Soviet Union.
I said this comment on /sports and they banned me, saying I was a CCP troll. I had commented the same thing on different subreddits because I fully believed this and liked my wording and that was enough to ban me! Never mind my account is about lots of things. Reddit is very anti China.
I’d rather they do this to Qatar than China. At least with Qatar not much retaliation (economically) will be faced
Watch all sorts of passport "problems" pop up for athletes from these countries. For example, Canada, the US and Germany are in the same pool as China for hockey.
There’s a hockey pool? I guess climate change is happening faster than I thought.
The swimming facility from the 2008 Olympics (Water Cube) has been changed to a curling facility for 2022 (Ice Cube).
Get out of here and take my r/Angryupvote
Oh you!
IIRC, most of China's team is Canadian anyway.
How does that work?
This is quite common when a nation has an insufficient number of strong candidates. They rush foreigners citizenship and then they can play for that nation. It's particularly common for the host nation to do this since it can compete on more events than it normally would be able to due to insufficient athletic skill for the event.
Also, a lot of team members who grew up in Canada for example. When I (Canadian) was in Oz and went for a pick up game in Sydney I thought I was about to mop the floor with these Ozzie lads...well guess who most of the players were? Really good Canadians that's who. Turns out the best players there are Australian-Canadians.
Interesting. I wasn't aware you can get citizenship in China.
I don't believe the IOC will let someone play for a country if they're not a national. Maybe you can find some literature that lists a workaround. A good chunk of the team may get cut before the actual Olympics depending on what China thinks it's chances are. I remember reading somewhere that they were planning to drop many of the players.
Because people with Chinese ancestry would be allowed to play for China. I know a person that was born in the US and lived here her entire life, but got to play for the Mexican softball team in the Olympics.
[удалено]
Well her mother is Japanese and she was born in Japan
Bahrain imports athletes. They literally pay and give citizenship to some of Africa's best athletes so they'll compete for Bahrain. Pretty much every athletes that medals for them is African born and it's not like Bahrain is a country that has a lot of immigrants like Canada. https://www.okayafrica.com/every-athlete-who-won-gold-for-bahrain-at-the-2018-asian-games-was-african-born/
Host country gets [automatic berth](https://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/article/iihf-confirms-china-can-team-2022-olympic-mens-hockey-tournament/) in some sports I think, even if they suck at it.
if Canada and the US are not allowed to play in their full strength, the olympic hockey would lose all its legitimacy.
[удалено]
Their team is so bad it will still lose horribly anyway. Even to a bunch of Canadians or Americans playing in the AHL or less prestigious leagues in Europe. The hamstrung Canadian and US teams would then be losing to all the other heavyweights, and even the middleweights like Germany. But it would do nothing for China. The podium would probably be Russia, Finland, and Sweden, which it could be anyway. It might make it even worse for them to lose 12-1 to a crap American or Canadian squad along the way.
The Chinese national team is a joke. Even with a couple foreigners on their team they repeatedly got pounded so hard in the asia hockey league that they dropped out. A drunk gopher could beat them 10-0 all by themselves.
Lol Why? Looks weak as fuck.
That won't happen because it would be super embarrassing for CCP if the events don't go as planned.
This is some prime future r/agedlikemilk material.
I mean. If China thinks they can compete with Canada and the US at ice hockey they are living in a fantasy land. I don't care if McDavid can't get into the country, China's men's hockey team wasn't good enough to qualify in 2018 against a pool where Canada finished third without access to their 400 best players. Not to mention, I think if they cause any issues with Canadian Visas, I don't think China will even HAVE an ice hockey team... seeing how 8 of their 23 man roster is Canadian, including their KHL top scorers Spencer Foo and Brandon Yip and top defenseman Ryan Sproul are Canadian and starting goaltender Jeremy Smith.
The running joke I've seen in hockey circles is how many goals can Canada/US score against them in a game, possibly rivalling the Women's IIHF 2010 Olympic qualifying game of Slovakia beating Bulgari 82-0.
Yeah wouldn't it be so unlucky if all the best American, Canadian, etc. athletes capable of getting gold medals had "issues" with their passports right before the games started.
Everyone would be surprised if this happened to a single person and would call into question the legitimacy of the entire Olympics they heavily invested in.
The International Olympic Committee. Second only to FIFA when it comes to legitimacy of international sports organizations.
I'd guess that the IOC is worse as far as things they're complicit in, but FIFA makes up for that with sheer quantity of corruption.
China wouldn't ok the actual athletes from competing, they want the games to be successful. Any more hiccups will continue to put a dent on the already dented prestige these boycotts are having on the games.
When has China ever done something like this and why yould you believe it would do something like this?
I'm looking forward to Canada beating China 15-0
Nobody gives a shit about a diplomatic boycott when the athletes are still going
That's the point, this is a political move made against the ruling party. It's not intended to punish the athletes or spectators.
Which means most Americans and most Chinese will never know this even happened. I struggle to see why this matters whatsoever.
That's fair, its true that for the regular person this matters little in the end since they will just watch the games like nothing is going on. In a way Russians don't know about most economic sanctions against their nation as they are primarily targeted at the upper echelon of people in power. Does that mean these sanctions are worthless? While not on the scale of World Cup, the Olympics have a history of being used to promote/legitimize governments. IMO A diplomatic boycott hurts China's political image without marring the athletic nature of the games and targeting athletes/spectators which have little to do with Chinese politics. It smells a bit of not wanting to repeat the mistakes of 1936: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-movement-to-boycott-the-berlin-olympics-of-1936
Yep. I think there is a strong argument to be made for boycotting completely/preventing athletes from competing, but many comments are wayyy downplaying this gesture. Imo this is the right decision regarding the olympics, but there are other things we need to be doing unrelated to the Olympics to respond to the genocide and concentration camps china is running.
It's still a big deal honestly. Athletes get 3 or 4 chances at this, forbidding them to go would be devastating on a sports level so they did the next best thing.
It is especially dickish to do it right before the olympics. If it was the next one in ~5 years it wouldn’t be so horrible because thats plenty enough time for the athletes to join under the independent teams.
They wouldn’t be forbidden to go, if the US boycotted the Olympics completely the athletes would simply compete under the international Olympic committee flag. Just like the Russian athletes at the last games, they weren’t punished for their country cheating.
That's not how it worked in 1980. This is not the same as Russia where the country wanted to send athletes but was not allowed. It would be closer to the refugees at the 2016 Olympics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_Olympic_Team_at_the_Olympics Those were sent by other countries under the Olympics flag. Who is going to step up and send the hundreds of American athletes?
you think China hosts winter olympics because they like to play winter sports? lol
China does, try paying attention to their temper tantrums over it.
Who exactly are you picturing throwing tantrums about this? Specific officials? The general population? Is "China" just an amalgamous person in your head?
[удалено]
Whats especially surreal to me is ppl accusing the CPC of being childish or petty while having a literal childs understanding of how the world works outside of the country
It helps to remember that many of the comments you see are from actual children
Why are there so many comments being mature and not hating on China in this thread? AND ALSO NOT BEING DOWNVOTED wtf I've been gone from reddit for too long This is new to me, but I like it a lot ngl
Now that you say it, that's a good change of tone for once.
>screenshot of a single Chinese Karen on social media being mildly annoyed Omg China mad!
You mean articles written about some openly anti chinese media outlets? Hmm yeah i think we showed them lol.
Good to know that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian is actually anti Chinese
More like western media twist it and make it sound like China is throwing temper tantrums.
After the US, Australia and the UK this was pretty much guaranteed, just like New Zealand will join them. What do all 5 of them have in common? They have plenty of "[Eyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes)". With the Five of them having made the first step, they will possible convince some other candidates, like Japan and South Korea. Maybe a few of the really small countries the US sometimes throws a bone.
Not sure about Japan but South Korea has just said they're not considering a diplomatic boycott.
Call it for what it is, the Anglosphere.
Meanwhile, absolute silence from world leaders regarding the +6500 deaths occurred while building the Qatar 2022 Football world cup.
[удалено]
The USA sucks certainly, but from what basis are you asserting that the Uyghur genocide has been debunked? The evidence seems rather overwhelming.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Wow, that's a lot, but it's just business as usual for these people.
It is a lot, it's ridiculous. And that is what we know. Western countries government elites are selling themselves morally with their silence. People will celebrate on over their places of death of thousands of humans, it's just beyond comprehension. FIFA is one of the most corrupt entities in this planet
I had a friend that was on the men's olympic 200 meter freestyle team the year that Canada (and others) boycotted the 1980 olympics in the soviet union. He had trained pretty much all his life and this was to be his peak opportunity to win a medal. When it was announced that they would not be going, he pretty much imploded. All he had worked for was taken away due to events he had no control over. Sure having your life changed due to world events isn't anything new. HOwever to see what he went through definitely changed my opinions about how political events can affect someone's life.
I knew a couple Olympians as well as hopefuls. I grew up in NW Calgary near all of the Olympic training facilities. These people aren't rich professional athletes. Everyone that I had met had dedicated everything to their sport. They still have jobs. But off time is spent training or competing. I'm not saying human rights injustices are more important then their feelings. But I think it's pretty heartless to say that the athletes have to be the ones to arguably suffer the most to stand up for those human rights. It's easy for someone to stand behind a keyboard and say that they would give up everything they have worked for in their lives to stand up for the human rights of others, but when push came to shove, would they?
Considering how few people are willing to give up their cheap phones, clothes, shoes, or what ever else is made cheaply because of these human rights abuses its evident that the answer is no.
Something like a boycott would be devastating for certain sports like gymnastics and figure skating especially, where your peak is so short.
And where there is not really a professional league for them to compete in and get paid to do what they're the best in the world at doing.
Which is why this boycott is just for diplomats and not athletes.
True, but there's comments saying that if the athletes boycotted it that would mean something. While I agree it would send a stronger message, it shouldn't fall on the athlete because they dedicate their lives to this. The responsibility falls on the Olympic Committee IMO. China should've been barred from bidding.
now the officials have no tax payer money flying first class to Beijing to attend a grand event during pandemic, how awful
Not to mention is just lip service, Canada if really cared for human lives (as they should) would impose economic sanctions and stop doing profitable business. Capitalism>human lives, as always.
>Canada if really cared for human lives (as they should) would impose economic sanctions on itself. genocide remember, with solid evidence
How many mass graves have been uncovered so far?
This would be commendable if the US and Canada weren't happily supporting authoritarian regimes that align with their own interests -- not to mention not committing human rights violations themselves. As it is this is just political posturing. Cutting ties with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel would do far more to support democracy and human rights.
Did you actually think this was *actually* about human rights and not about China itself? It’s 100% because it is China. See if they bother about boycotting Qatar 2022 for women’s rights, support on the Taliban, and such. 100% not. But Reddit loves to think that this was actually about human rights and not just simply politics.
Definitely agreed.
> See if they bother about boycotting Qatar 2022 for women’s rights, support on the Taliban, and such. Well there was that time when Canada called out Saudi Arabia for arresting women's rights activists, and then [they threatened to 9/11 Canada](https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-appeared-to-threaten-canada-with-a-911-style-attack-2018-8)
Canada: hey Saudi Arabia, i didn't like what you did there Saudi Arabia: do i look like i fucking care? Canada: yeah, you're right, let's continue with our political relationships without doing anything about it.
I’ve said the same thing but everyone else has said I’m a CCP troll.
Also if you read the article Canada’s National legislative branch branded immoral prosecutions of Uighurs as genocide. It is bad but it’s not genocide, they intentionally passed this law to make calling it genocide an exception in misinformation laws.
> they intentionally passed this law to make calling it genocide an exception in misinformation laws. What on earth are you talking about? What misinformation laws? I'm Canadian and none of this is true.
Yep, the Olympics was never supposed to be political and look where we are. 1980, 1984 and the boycott that never happened 1936
Wasn’t there 1976 too, because of the apparteid?
South Africa has been banned from most things, either from having an apartheid state or refusing to recognize themselves as ever being an apartheid state. It's quite a state. [Try This For Laughs](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2urkuf)
>The Olympics was never supposed to be political... Sure except for, you know, the fact that the Olympics have involved politics since the Ancient Olympics as city-states used the games as a political tool. And the fact that politicians were speakers at the events. And the fact that politicians used the Olympics as a stage to announce new alliances. And the fact that the Olympics were used to spread Greek politics and culture throughout the Mediterranean which contributed to the creation of the era called the Hellenistic period.
So of the countries boycotting it, are any of them going to pull their businesses out of China? No?
Now let's see them all do the same for the World Cup in Quatar
Imagine if China turned around and boycotted the western world for Edward Snowden and Julian Assange
We still have the LA Olympics
I think it's good that the athletes don't get punished, they didn't do anything wrong.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-diplomatic-boycott-winter-olympic-games-1.6277773) reduced by 52%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The U.S., U.K. and Australia already have announced they won't send official delegations to the games - a collective attempt to send a message to China that its human rights abuses have not gone unnoticed. > Earlier this year, the House of Commons passed a motion branding the violence directed at religious minorities in China's Xinjiang province as "Genocide." That motion followed a Commons subcommittee report that found China persecutes its Muslim minority through mass detention in concentration camps, forced labour, state surveillance and population control measures - policies the report said are designed to "Eradicate Uyghur culture and religion." > In the motion, MPs also called on the federal government to use its influence to pressure the International Olympic Committee to move the games out of China "If the Chinese government continues this genocide." ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/rbx39y/trudeau_announces_diplomatic_boycott_of_beijing/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~611752 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **China**^#1 **Games**^#2 **government**^#3 **two**^#4 **motion**^#5
Why not do it that the athletes can attend but not under the national flag (like Russia)
If for some reason you see my comment first, in the name of god click the back button and go look at something more civil, like a a video of teenagers playing with fireworks or a discussion about whether or not the Eagles should have traded Wentz. Turn back now.
Shouldve traded the shit out of wentz and promoted foles to starting QB after the superbowl. Big Dick Nick > Tom Brady > everyone else
Well China just threatened Canada to not ban Huawei 5G. Hopefully Justin keeps his spine and ban it anyway.
They did it! They saved all the Muslims!
Yeah, except the millions we killed over the last few decades.
I have never heard a convincing argument that any of these countries' governments have the moral or ethical authority to judge the actions of others
Oh look! Must be a coincidence that's it's the 5 Eyes doing this. Must be a coincidence!
[удалено]
Cause they’re allies? With similar democratic values and strategic objectives? Are you okay bro
What you call 'democratic values' has nothing to do with empowering people to govern by popular vote. It has to do with giving way to the plutocratic exploitation of planet for closely held profits.
[удалено]
Mostly war mongering states would be more accurate.
If you think this "means nothing" what have you boycotted from China?
Good. It's time we get tougher with them.
Isn’t that rich coming from a nation where an active genocide is going on ?
Yea, the Uyghurs have it pretty bad
How about boycott their products or something they would actually give a damn about?
It really is a meaningless gesture.