'Welcome to the Malaise Olympics,' Derek Robertson writes for POLITICO Magazine — 'try, if you can, not to have too much fun.'
The hazard of treating these games like any other is, yes, a legitimate moral one of cossetting an abusive police state, but it’s also a political one, as the issue of the U.S.’ relationship with China has been subsumed into our partisan Thunderdome in a way it was decidedly not during the Bush and Obama eras.
Complicating the matter is the fact that the World Uyghur Congress — the international body representing the Muslim ethnic group in western China against which the Chinese state has been credibly accused of committing genocide — has stated its desire for sympathetic nationsto fully boycott the games. Instead, they want the games to be a platform to raise awareness for their plight in the style of American athletes’ Black Lives Matter advocacy.
None of the options on the menu are wholly appealing. The most notable thing about this year’s diplomatic boycott might ultimately be notthat such a boycott has been implemented. It’s an appropriate innovation for a time when many Americans, rightly or not, perceive their leaders as more interested in gestural shadowboxing than the messy, consequence-ridden business of actually getting things done.
Taking more decisive action than a “diplomatic boycott” — in either direction — could inconvenience, or even harm, athletes and politicians alike. It’s for the China-watchers and geopolitical hands to decide which route might actually increase the leverage with which the U.S. and its allies can dissuade the nation from its many abuses. But muddling through these games the way we are now invites its own harm, opening the U.S.
few years, Americans and their global neighbors are desperate for something that can uncomplicatedly make them feel good. Pardon the hoary, mixed sports metaphor, but when it comes to that kind of existential bonhomie, the Olympics are usually a home run. That kind of success might never have been on the table given the inherently contentious nature of a Beijing-held Games, but by choosing this particular middle path, we’re not even trying to make contact with the ball.
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