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U.S. says it will not send officials to Beijing Winter Olympics
- nickdothutton 5y agoIn a world full of meaningless gestures, this stands out as particularly fatuous.
- investinyolo 5y agoNo, not the officials!
- outside1234 5y agoIf 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."
- lrvick 5y agoAs funny as that would be, I don't think the athletes would be safe making any kind of political statements directly.
- outside1234 5y agoI think that sums it up. How is it possible we are having an Olympics in such a place?
- carabiner 5y agoWell, we in the US have our own prison camps. They're less racist and more driven by profiteers who are modern slaveowners. It's the same thing, less on the nose.
- parthdesai 5y agoI do get your point, but the massive difference is that you can make that statement in US without having to think about repercussions. Can't do that in China.
- dirtyid 5y ago"At least muh free speech" that changes nothing seems like the go-to American exceptionalism excuse. Latest report coming out of XJ is the mass internment phase is over. So the massive difference is is PRC doesn't mass detain minorities for longer than political goals deem necessary. Yet Americans still can't seem free speech / vote away forever for profit prison industrial complex.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- djohnston 5y agoTBF we had the olympics in Nazi Germany so it's not like this is breaking some existing streak of IOC virtue.
- outside1234 5y agoWhy do we continue to have that venue be the place where we have our athletes go then?
- brundolf 5y agoJust emblazon them with “Remember Tiananmen Square”. I’d love to see China try and censor its own Olympics.
- empressplay 5y agoHow about a graphic of a woman standing in front of a tank? That makes a clear point while removing the language barrier...
- dirtyid 5y agoThere'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
- encryptluks2 5y agoThe 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.
- petre 5y agoIt 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.
- staticautomatic 5y agoMuch simpler to just put Winnie the Pooh on the outfits.
- amir734jj 5y agoI 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.
- mercy_dude 5y agoThese 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.
- Overtonwindow 5y agoDiplomatically recognize Taiwan.
- slickrick216 5y agoBetter yet force the G7 all to do it.
- nradov 5y agoIt's impossible to force the G7 to do anything.
- mrlonglong 5y agoI've been saying for years we need to do just that and sign a defence pact with them.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoFor bonus points, as walrus01 said a couple weeks ago, call the mainland "Occupied West Taiwan".
- skywal_l 5y agoSo, 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-developing-country-gives-it-few-benefits-in-the-world-trade-organisation-124602 https://theconversation.com/myth-busted-chinas-status-as-a-d...
- bingohbangoh 5y ago
- Iwan-Zotow 5y agoWhere they ever invited?
- nszhang 5y agoNope
- tln750 5y agoUS launched a multi-decade war using fake and fabricated evidence in which millions of innocent people who had nothing to do with 9/11 have been slaughtered and exterminated. Perhaps the world should boycott events in the US.
- Theodores 5y agoI 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?
- LambdaTrain 5y agoExactly. I find comment section of many articles on HN are informative or constructive. But whenever it comes to China politics, going through the comment section is being like "Huh not this again"
- Hithredin 5y agoTrue. 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
- StanislavPetrov 5y agoI'm sure the Chinese will weep due to their absence.
- bjourne 5y agoUsually 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.
- pasabagi 5y ago>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.