Arguments Against Olympic Boycotts
Several people have argued that there should not be an Olympic boycott of any kind, and I’m inclined to agree. If athletes want to make statements (i.e., 1968) I would be all for it, and I have no problem with non-violent torch protests. Here’s what the the always entertaining Andrew Sullivan had to say:
I’m thrilled with the torch protests, but loathe boycotts. Either give China the Olympics or don’t. If you do, and they don’t do anything egregiously aggressive in advance, show up.
This one is a little older, from James Fallows in the fall. It is a more fully fleshed out argument, and is in the context of Burma. I wholeheartedly agree with him:
If a country makes a threat, it must be ready to carry it out. The plain fact is, virtually no country in the world, certainly not the United States, is ready to carry out the threat to boycott the Olympics. Therefore other countries should pressure China. And talk with China. And leave in the background the suggestion that China’s grand and gala opening-to-the-world event, toward which so much of its money and attention is now being devoted, will be forever tainted if the Chinese government continues to look like the evil Burmese junta’s only foreign friend. But it would be foolish to waste time with ultimatums to the effect: Olympics or Burma, take your pick. The Chinese would know that the foreigners didn’t mean it.Why would they know that? Because the foreign governments understand a point that some foreign editorialists miss: that China as a whole – not just its government but also the great majority of its people — would take such a boycott as a deeply hostile act.
Perhaps I’m in the minority on this, but I think that athletes should be able to blog, voice their dissent, choose not to attend the games (as individuals) and even criticize their host country. We need to show that open dialogue is healthy, and a symbol of strength, not weakness. Boycotts by individual countries (or hollow threats) serve no real purpose. But maybe that’s just me.
Richard G responds:
Posted: April 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am →
I’m inclined to agree with you. Boycotting in 1980 and 1984 didn’t really achieve anything, and a boycott here wouldn’t do much either. Take the yuan as an example. When America was hostile about revaluation, the government did nothing. It wasn’t until tone was softened into an actual dialog that the currency started to really appreciate. I believe that dialog is the only way to proceed here, and any boycott rhetoric should end as it is just that.
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: April 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm →
“It wasn’t until tone was softened into an actual dialog that the currency started to really appreciate. I believe that dialog is the only way to proceed here, and any boycott rhetoric should end as it is just that.”
And the 8.4 : 1 currency peg was too difficult to maintain. Talk has its place, but so does action and now is the time for action to carve up China.
Larry responds:
Posted: April 10th, 2008 at 12:35 am →
When Mao started the revolution in China in the early 1900’s, no one think he could succeed either. Why did the CPC carried on ? When Sun Yat-sen started the revolution at the end of the 18′th century, people called him crazy and a never-do-well. He should have stop right there.
There is such a thing as dedication to a cause. If it is right, do it, even when there is no hope of success.
Do you think when Washington started the US revolution, he was certain he would succeed and not get crushed by the Brits – who was otherwise engaged by Napoleon in Europe at the time ?
Josh responds:
Posted: April 10th, 2008 at 7:30 am →
Larry: So you’re advocating a boycott?
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: April 10th, 2008 at 12:57 pm →
Everyone figured this would happen at the games. Sketchy officiating that always favors China or its “friends” (cough, cough) or at least goes against certain blocs of countries, star athletes with sudden bouts of intestinal instability or findings of doping that also knock out star athletes.
Speaking of doping, it seems China has taken the preemptive measure of knocking out the Greek weightlifting team. Wouldn’t the Russian, US or German teams be obvious targets? Greece has an up and coming track and field team, but weightlifting has been a consistent award winner for Greece and the entire team has been taken out (which helps China’s team) due to an accidental “impurity” that made it into some training meds the team imports from …..China!
Let’s hear it for medical outsourcing from Mordor!
This story is apparently excerpted from Hong Kong’s English language daily, the South China Morning Post:
(Quote)
A Shanghai pharma company may have managed to disqualify the entire Greek weightlifting team from the Olympics after shipping them tainted health supplements. A surprise inspection of the Greek team by the World Anti-Doping Agency revealed that 11 of the team?s athletes had unapproved substances in their systems. The Chinese firm has already apologized for providing the bad product, saying: ?We send [sic] you L-tyrosine mixed with something else that it [sic] only for research purposes.?
This is another one with quality fade written all over it. Looking to widen its margins, the factory probably cut an active ingredient with a molecular lookalike that was slightly cheaper. Since the general public to this day still doesn?t understand the extent to which quality fade occurs across China manufacturing, the recent supplement spike will likely be seen as sabotage. Some will suggest – if they are not already doing so – that China deliberately attempted to knock Greece out of the weightlifting competition.
Foreign athletes are going to be on high alert this summer in any event. The foreign catering companies that will set up shop in Beijing are promising to do an an excellent job of controlling quality, and they will be shipping in meat. All the same, they still need to source many ingredients in China. Athletes who somehow manage to bring their own food into China are going to have to get around rules that prohibit outside food in the athletes? village.
There is nothing that the Chinese are more proud of than their cuisine, and they are likely going to take dietary ambitions of foreign athletes the wrong way. By rejecting food products made in China, the foreign atheletes may inadvertently cause China more embarrassment than all of the protests combined. Protests abroad do not upset the Chinese. In fact, they offer proof to the Chinese that along with freedom comes an anything-goes social order, and it?s highly undesirable. The food snub is a different issue. It will genuinely sadden many Chinese, though, oddly enough, they won?t seem to understand the extent to which they have only themselves to blame.
(Unquote)
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: April 11th, 2008 at 10:09 am →
Here’s another argument for boycott:
w.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/10/china-a-true-nightmare-on-april-fools-day/#comment-1427695
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