On February 4th, Beijing opens the 2022 Winter Games. The occasion has been beset by extraordinary pressures from the realms of politics, diplomacy, and public health.
For most of its history, China had little use for the kinds of competitive sports that were popular in the West. Qing-dynasty scholars associated them with the undignified domain of. But, in 1895, China suffered a swift defeat in a war with Japan, which convinced a generation of Chinese thinkers that building international respect must begin with mastering physical competitions.
For the 2008 Summer Games, to mollify critics, the organizers pledged to “enhance all the social sectors, including education, medical care, and human rights.” That commitment fuelled hopes that the event might become a catalyst akin to the 1988 Summer Games, in Seoul, which hastened South Korea’s transition from a dictatorship to a democracy. China made a stunning investment in preparation—and all but ignored the human-rights pledge.
That was not to be. If Chinese leaders took a lesson from those Games, it was more likely about the power of defiant self-protection. Not only had they held off demands for reform but, weeks later, the Wall Street mortgage crisis sapped their trust in the U.S. financial system, and they grew increasingly suspicious of ideas and technology from the outside. Since the Arab Spring, in 2011, China has arrested or silenced a generation of lawyers, journalists, and civil-society activists.
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