The number of countries that have joined in the diplomatic boycott is 4 now. US, UK, Canada, and Australia (plus New Zealand, though they are saying it’s over covid concerns, not because of anything as petty as genocide or human rights).
The US has also passed (in the House) a ban on imports and goods produced by forced labor. While one would think this would be a no-brainer, it seems to have had a really difficult time getting to this point, though seems to be moving now. Whether it will be passed in the Senate seems to still be a thing, but in the House, it was pretty much a bi-partisan slam dunk, once it was actually voted on (428-1).
I like this diplomatic boycott idea. It sends the desired symbolic message without hurting athletes or fans. It won’t actually have any immediate concrete effect on anything, of course, but neither would a full boycott.
I would think it would pass the Senate, but there will be huge pressure from special interests to stop it. Just some of the American companies using forced labor from china in their goods:
Adidas
Amazon
Apple
BMW in US
Fila
The Gap
Marks and Spenser
Nike
North Face
Puma
Van Heusen
That’s just a small sample. I know at leadt Apple and Nike actively lobbied against this bill, and probably other companies which is likely why the bill was delayed so long.
It’s good timing, just before the Olympics (or will they try to delay this until after?). A lot of major sports brands are going to have trouble threading this needle. Good, I say. Get in bed with the devil, and you might get burned.
Definitely agree. I think these companies should be called out and put on the hot seat wrt their actions. I’m hoping all of this stuff makes the public more aware of what is going on and how we all support such a regime through our own purchasing and sports who support such things.
It’s been funny watching the CCP’s reaction to all of this. So far they have said that no one cares if the countries doing the diplomatic boycott come or not, that they weren’t invited, that it’s no issue…and that they will retaliate strongly and punish all the countries doing the boycott and seem really pissed off for something that supposedly they don’t care about.
I have heard that a lot of countries are considering doing a similar boycott, though as far as I know in Europe only Lithuania and Estonia have made formal announcements. France seems to be opposed to a boycott but says it will do what the EU does (which, my WAG is they won’t boycott anything). Japan seems to be on board with a boycott, though I’m not sure if they have formally announced it yet…and they might not, just basically not sending any high-level officials but making no formal announcement to try and walk the fence.
A handful of countries have announced the opposite, that they will, for sure, be sending officials to the games.
Yeah, plus a lot of countries are afraid of ‘angering the Chinese people’ and ruining juicy trade deals or other things of that nature. South Korea has already said they will be sending representatives, for sure, and they are far from the only country that has done so. I expect the EU to basically say something like ‘member countries are free to make their own decisions on this’, as they don’t seem to have any sort of consensus, which will leave France and others free to go (Macron has already built the groundwork for this, saying essentially what most in this thread are saying, that such a boycott is meaningless and stupid…which, seems obvious to me, is incorrect just based on the reaction and the fact that countries have to justify not doing one).
At the moment these companies deny using forced labor, because the nice Chinese government says so. Having to proved there is no forced labor will force them to move production would be helpful. Of course they’d rather keep things as they are. Remember what Lenin said about rope.
As to what else to do, a full boycott didn’t really help before, and it just hurts the athletes. But let’s get a movement together to boycott the sponsors. That will hit the IOC where it hurts.
It’s 1936 all over again.
That’s a good idea. Mockery would help too. I wish we still had comedians willing to offend people. Perhaps Bill Maher could step up. If you can make wearing that garb uncool, you don’t need a boycott - people will stop wearing them on their own.
Sorry for the really late bump to the thread. I notice there hasn’t been much headway for a diplomatic boycott, 4 countries at last count. And one of them used Covid as a partial excuse. Just another empty gesture by western countries that will have zero effect on human rights abuses.
I can’t be the only person that, in all my years of watching the Olympics, never once even thought about whether or not a politician from any country attended the games. Hell, I didn’t even know there was a protocol for countries to send politicians to represent them. I thought that’s why the athletes were there.
Looks like Japan is also not sending officials to the Olympics, but they are specifically not calling it a boycott. They announced this Christmas Eve for some odd reason.
So, looks to me as if most countries are not going to be boycotting the games, even this watered-down diplomatic boycott. I don’t think the EU has decided (or, they have tabled it and decided not to decide or even discuss it formally), but as I said earlier, my WAG is they will do something like just allowing individual countries in the EU to decide…and I’m pretty sure most won’t want to do even the diplomatic boycott. I know Germany and France specifically are pushing back against this pretty hard.
There are a lot of interesting arguments above and I genuinely don’t know how effective or useful a boycott would be.
Having said that, I believe that human rights are important and that principled statements should be made, especially regarding a regime that, in addition to its internal affairs, is also a thug-ocracy. After the whole two-Michaels affair we (Canadians) in particular should feel strongly about this.
Regarding the effect of a boycott on the athletes and their dreams, there are people all over the world in a variety of different jobs who don’t get to achieve their professional dreams for various real-world reasons - this is no different.
Also, as a sidenote, the two Michaels, according to our foreign affairs minister “are on bail according to the criminal law in China, and so we want to make sure we work that out with the Chinese government.” Think about that for a moment - what if China doesn’t think that bail conditions (whatever those are) aren’t being met? Apologies for the hijack.
Well, presumably they won’t be stupid enough to go back to China, so if China makes up some BS (which they almost certainly will), the two Michael’s can essentially tell them to piss up a rope as far as I know…you don’t have an extradition treaty with China, and even if you did I doubt Canada would send them back to China on their say-so over this, especially since it’s pretty clear this was a made-up thing because of Meng Wanzhou…who is under a similar ‘threat’ from the US, and who, similarly, can tell the US to piss up a rope if she violates what she agreed on (assuming she isn’t stupid enough to try and come to the US that is).
No worries. The thread is pretty much dead at this point as most 'dopers don’t seem to care about this stuff very much.
Not just foreign fans; yesterday. Yesterday they stopped ticket sales to local residents. In short, these games are going to be like the ones in Tokyo.
I’m looking forward to 2024 in Paris, by which I’m hoping for a return to normalcy.
