Shall we boycott Beijing 2022?

Workers fix the surface of a road outside the newly completed National Speed Skating Oval ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics test events in Beijing, March 31. AP

By David A Tizzard

In 2017, a world champion did something most remarkable: they refused to take part in a competition which they believed was prolonging human suffering. In doing so, they forfeited both their titles and considerable prize money but retained their dignity.

Obviously this wasn't a multi-millionaire Nike-sponsored athlete otherwise you would have likely heard about it before now. Instead, this was two-time women's chess champion Anna Muzychuk declaring she would not defend her title in Saudi Arabia.

Muzychuk's reasons were clear: "I decided not to go to Saudi Arabia. Not to play by someone's rules, not to wear an abaya, not to be accompanied getting outside and altogether not to feel myself a secondary creature."

Regardless of how one feels about Saudi Arabia as a state, surely one can at least respect Anna Muzychuk's position. She would not allow her own personal values to be compromised by the lure of money and instead sacrificed her own chances of fame in doing so.

So what would happen if the world had more Anna Muzychuks? Would countries still be attending the Beijing Olympics next year? Or, more pertinently, should countries still attend the Beijing Olympics next year?

If you decided to take the position that China has placed over a million people in indoctrination and labor camps (officially titled Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers), and while there it has stripped away their religious and human freedoms under a brutal and oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, and forced sterilization, on what grounds could you consider supporting the Beijing Olympics?

President Biden has promised to be "unrelenting" in his battle against China's human rights abuses while the State Department has labeled the actions taken by the CCP as "genocide." British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there is a "highly disturbing program of repression" and that "we cannot simply look the other way [during] one of the worst human rights crises of our time."

But if one uses this language and then still sends sports stars and athletes to compete there, what are we to think? Just how outraged are we meant to be by all this?

One does not easily denounce such behavior in a person and then rock up at their house with a couple of bottles for a party. Is it another case of deflection like we saw in the southern part of the United States when "concentration camps reminiscent of Nazi Germany" suddenly became "homely detention centers" overnight because the teams had changed? Or is there genuinely something for us to stand up against?

My point is not whether China is acting correctly or not, that is for each individual to decide on their own terms. Rather I am trying to suggest that people stick to their values a little more and not just do whatever is politically expedient.

Pew Research from 2020 shows 75 percent of the Koreans surveyed possessing negative sentiments toward China. South Korea reportedly lost $7.5 billion during China's ban of Korean cultural products as retaliation for the placement of an American missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula and tensions have been high ever since.

The current ruling party had previously drummed up political support by turning the nation's ire at the historic enemy Japan, banning and refusing to (publically) purchase Tokyo's products. That move gained the party a lot of support from the people and aroused a great sense of national pride. I don't think, however, that President Moon imagined it would then be turned toward China and Beijing with the passion that it has.

This has been one of the underlying lessons of Adam Curtis' recent documentaries and perhaps it's now being demonstrated again here in South Korea: politicians will often seek to gain political support by revisiting historical antagonisms and stirring the masses against an enemy … but those passions will soon become uncontrollable and manifest in a number of unpredictable and, often, unseemly, ways.

The highly-anticipated $28 million Korean drama "Joseon Exorcist" was taken off air after just a couple of days for perceived Chinese influence, while "True Beauty" and "Vincenzo" have also come under fire for Chinese product placement. Upcoming dramas "The Golden Hairpin" from tvN and JTBC's "Until the Morning Comes" are also both based on popular Chinese novels as domestic companies here seek that lovely external lucre.

South Korean media meanwhile continues to warn citizens of China's alleged cultural imperialism and "Northeast Project" while also seeking to protect the integrity and ownership of traditional Korean products and foods ranging from kimchi to hanbok.

President Moon and his administration have seemingly only sought to placate China. They have not expressed support for the democratic rights of the people of Hong Kong, they have not banned Huawei's 5G networks, they have remained silent on the continued imprisonment of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, and they have said nothing of note about the seeming human rights violations in Xinjiang.

They have also publically championed holding the Olympics and World Cup in North Korea so one does wonder whether or not the administration realizes that, despite them being on occasion allowed to wonder around Pyongyang and up Baekdu Mountain with various chaebeol leaders for love heart-filled photo ops, no one else is allowed such privileges.

The issue has become politicized here with the opposition conservative party currying favor with the public by accusing the democratic party of extreme deference to China. Their political comments of late suggest they will take a far tougher stance on China if given power and this seems to be winning them some support.

Yet if we politicize human rights like that, if we only mention them when it's politically expedient to do so, we are not only undermining them as a concept, we make ourselves less trustworthy and believable. Yes they are an idea (a social construct) rather than a naturally occurring phenomenon, but their strength comes from consistency rather than fickleness.

Regardless of one's political affiliation, national identity, or ethnicity, it would be nice to see people actually stand behind their values: to be more like Anna Muzychuk. It's all well and good making claims about the horrors people are committing, but if you then go and buy their products, shop at their store, and send your richest and most famous to their place for events, what do your words really mean? Nothing.

Dr. David A Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.