Diplomatic boycott: After the USA, Japan has now also distanced itself from the Olympic host, China.
Photo: imago images / MIS
At the end of November, the Global Times, China’s English-language state paper, predicted that the path to the Beijing Winter Olympics would not be easy: “This event will not only be a clear stress test for China’s ability to react to various crises, but also a catalyst for China’s mental growth as a great power. ”Because soon, according to the daily,“ anti-Chinese forces ”will join forces to make life difficult for China.
In a sense, that’s exactly how it turned out. It is true that the liberal industrialized countries of the world would hardly call themselves “anti-Chinese”, but they have given the Winter Games, which start on February 4th, an unmistakable flaw. At the beginning of December, the US announced that it would not send political representatives to the Winter Games because of various human rights violations by the Chinese government. This decision was soon followed by Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Lithuania.
On Friday, Japan announced that no member of the government would travel to Beijing. “We think it is important that universal values such as freedom, respect for human rights and the separation of powers are secured in China,” said Hirokazu Matsuno, chief secretary of the Japanese government, in Tokyo. “We made the decision taking all of these factors into consideration.” Only representatives from the sports world will be there. But Matsuno did not want to use the phrase “diplomatic boycott,” which has been circulating internationally for weeks.
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The rejection from Japan in particular marks a diplomatic defeat for the organizers in Beijing. The Chinese government initially reacted in a contradictory and passive-aggressive manner to the boycott decision from the USA: “Nobody cares whether they come or not,” claimed Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “Whether or not they appear has no influence on Beijing’s successful staging of the Winter Games.” In addition, they were not invited anyway. Shortly afterwards, China announced consequences. However, the hosts clearly wanted Japan to support the Beijing Winter Games. The “Global Times” recently wrote: “Japan should remain confident after China has given its full support to the Tokyo Games and will mark the 50th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in 2022.” Even after the Tokyo decision the demand for cooperation was made again on Friday.
The reason for this is clear. China and Japan, the world’s second and third largest economies, have extremely complicated relationships with one another despite their close economic ties. This is due, among other things, to war crimes by Japan against China in World War II, some territorial conflicts and a rivalry for influence in the Pacific region. But when the corona crisis had to postpone the Olympic Games originally planned for the summer of 2020 in Tokyo by a year with the start of the pandemic, China quickly and unmistakably offered help to its unloved neighbor.
Last March – four months before the postponed start of the Summer Games – China even wanted to provide vaccines for the whole world so that the Tokyo Games can actually take place. The pride of the nationalist government of Japan would have prevented it from accepting such an offer. In addition, the Chinese vaccines were not approved in many countries, including Japan. All of this was well known in China. The Beijing offer of help seemed like one with the ulterior motive of securing Japan’s support for the following winter games in February.
The Beijing Games have the slogan “Together for a shared future”. The name “Together for a common future” should be such a program: Like every state that organizes the Olympic Games, China also wants to present itself in a positive light, expand its cultural and diplomatic sphere of influence and improve its image. The country’s government, which is putting people in re-education camps, arresting journalists and bruising protests, made this particularly necessary. The one-party state has few friends internationally. Olympia, the largest sporting event in the world, should help with this.
The absence of Japanese officials now hurts in three ways. Not only does this make complicated neighborhood relationships even more difficult. As the host country of the last Olympic Games only six months ago, Tokyo’s refusal to celebrate the sport with Beijing’s representatives is particularly symbolic. And finally, the decision of the industrial state Japan, which is influential in the Pacific region, could also result in the refusals of other countries. A PR show can only partially become “Beijing 2022”.
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