Beijing, December 9, 2009 : .In the midst of China-US one upmanship and US President Joe Biden’s recriminations towards Russia, East-West tensions didn’t cause much concern.
Washington announced a diplomatic boycott for the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year.This was amid a Yuletide season that has been hotened by geostrategic tensions.
Acerbic relations between the two superpowers have recently been in flux as the United States under Joe Biden has raised the heat on China under Xi Jinping’s stewardship.
Taiwan, Hong Kong, weaponization and the battle for one-upmanship in the South China Sea have littered the turf of bilateral ties between the two nations.
Sports — recently being used as a weapon of attrition in international politics — is increasingly coming to the fore in the arena of inter-state confrontation.
The boycott seems to be in sync with the events between the two countries — one of which is always criticized for calling itself the leader the free world.
“It’s understandable as long as they are sending athletes,” said a former Chinese sports journalist, talking about the move that wouldn’t directly affect athletes.
Germany’s Thomas Bach, a 1976 Olympic fencing gold medallist, lost the opportunity to defend his Olympic title in 1980 after the Western Bloc boycotted the Moscow Games, added the journalist.
Bach, who is now President of International Olympic Committee (IOC), stated that he chose not to be politically involved in the face the Washington boycott.
Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada have been doing the US’ bidding by announcing diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games by citing concerns over China’s human rights record.
What is important is that athletes are participating, the German official said.
Global Times, a Chinese mouthpiece, had a different take on the controversy.
It called the boycott a “US hijack” and claimed that Washington had made it into a small diplomatic tool.
Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a press conference that the US has been fabricating the biggest lie of the century about so-called “genocide” in China’s Xinjiang region, which has been “refuted” by facts.
“Based on ideological biases and lies, the US is trying to disturb the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.The practice violates the principle of political neutrality enshrined in the Olympic Charter, runs counter to the Olympic motto of ‘together’ and stands on the opposite side of global athletes and sports fans,” Zhao said.
Unbeknownst to the extent that China was watching sports, three Chinese astronauts (called ‘taikonauts) delivered a lecture to schoolchildren.
Dressed in blue space suits, the trio demonstrated several interesting experiments, including those on surface tension and motion and how objects behave differently in space.
Back on earth, at a Chinese tea house in Anhui province in eastern China, people talked about Chinese-style democracy as steaming tea was poured into bowls.A Ukrainian man explained how the Chinese went about their business in the 100-year-old tea house, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The threat of a Russian invasion was another factor that played in the minds of people in Ukraine, thousands miles away.This was as the Kremlin exercised its muscle over the territorial dispute.
From the tea house to the Crimean Peninsula — when China and Russia are there, can their brand of democracy be far behind.
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