Competing with honor

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 23, 2022.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: protesting China’s human rights abuses.

AUDIO: The International Olympic Committee has the honor to announce the host city of the Olympic Winter Games 2022. Beijing! [APPLAUSE]

Regional protests over the IOC’s selection of Beijing began almost immediately after this announcement on July 31st, 2015. But in recent months those protests grew stronger and more numerous.

CURRY: This year's Winter Olympics are but one example of how China is using sports money and investment in infrastructure around the world to whitewash their human rights violations…

BROWN: Open Doors USA was just one of many non-profit groups that encouraged their supporters to boycott the winter games over China’s crackdown on religious minorities.

EICHER: What effect did these protests have? WORLD’s Paul Butler takes a look.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: Boycotts are nothing new. The first international boycott in the modern Olympic era occurred in 1956—as China and six other countries skipped out on the Melbourne games.

Other notable boycotts include the 1964 Tokyo Games, 1976 Montreal Games, and—most famously—the 1980 Moscow games when the United States and 64 other countries protested Russia’s involvement in Afghanistan.

JIMMY CARTER: And I have notified the Olympic Committee, that with Soviet invading forces in Afghanistan, neither the American people or I will support sending an Olympic team to Moscow.

While there may have been geopolitical solidarity, many athletes who had trained for years to compete in the 1980 olympics protested the move—like Canadian track and field star Diane Jones Konihowski. Audio here from Global News:

KONIHOWSKI: So I spoke out very strongly against it. I really felt that it was wrong. There's nothing more peaceful than an Olympic Games at the athlete level.

In the long run, the 1980 boycott had little effect. But athletes like former Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter believe today’s international sporting boycotts are a powerful tool for applying political pressure. Kanter called for a complete U.S. boycott of the Beijing winter games during his November 23rd, 2021 interview with CNN:

KANTER: You know the important thing is, we can not just have these kind of games happening where there is a genocide happening while we are speaking right now.

Two weeks later the Biden administration announced that neither the President nor any other government figures would attend the games. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

PSAKI: The athletes on team USA have our full support. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.

When Open Doors USA announced its 2022 World Watch List, President David Curry commended the Biden administration’s decision and asked Christians around the world to join in.

CURRY: And today, Open Doors USA is calling on every Christian in our nation to join this boycott of the Olympics in the name of our persecuted brothers and sisters in China.

Olympic boycotts leave athletes in the middle. Two-time Olympic cross-country skier Noah Hoffman offered this perspective during a recent interview on Fox.

HOFFMAN: The athletes have no control over where the Olympics are held…They are just at the mercy of the International Olympic Committee and at the mercy of the host country. And this has been a huge distraction…for them from their sport, and it makes them pawns in this geopolitical fight…It's just a terrible place for athletes to be.

But there is anecdotal evidence that the attention given to China’s Human Rights abuses may have had an effect. Television and streaming ratings were down as much as 48 percent over the last winter games. There are many possible explanations—including the large time difference—but it seems likely that the pressure from the international community played a part.

And that encourages Open Doors USA President David Curry:

CURRY: I love the Olympics. I love watching them. I think it's the drama of that competition and the way it has the potential for people together. But the International Olympic Committee and these kinds of groups keep awarding these games to people who have these major human rights violations, I just think it sends all the wrong signals. And I'm happy if in some way, our call for people of faith to boycott, has had some effect.

But as the 1980 boycott demonstrates, the effects may not be long lasting.

CURRY: There's limited effect they can have, but right now, China is desperate for the attention and for the world to sort of overlook all that's gone on…but if people are now talking about the things that China doesn't want you to talk about if they're talking about what's happening to Uyghur Muslims in the northwest of the country where there's at least a million people in the concentration camps. And the things that they're doing to the Christian population. So I think that's the limited, but positive effect, that sort of thing can have.

While a few athletes have spoken up against China after the games, not many did during them. But Curry understands.

CURRY: I think the best thing an athlete could do is compete with honor. And to use their platform to celebrate the competition. I would have hoped that some would speak out but I don't hold that against them. Their job is to go there and compete on behalf of their country and do so honorably.

Now that the Olympics are over, Curry wants to make sure that China’s religious abuses aren’t forgotten like most fourth place finishers. He’s calling for the same level of pressure to be applied to businesses that manufacture in China: insisting on protections against slave labor—who often persecuted Christians or Uyghurs.

Curry is concerned that the recent attention may have unintended consequences for Christians in China: as the CCP may crack down even more. But he’s hopeful that the Chinese church—and the American church that stands with them—will remain strong and bold.

CURRY: They're already monitoring every behavior, using facial recognition to go into church. They're monitoring every phone when you buy it and they're putting you on a no fly list, you could lose your job, your kids may not get into university and it’s a small step from that to controlling the digital currency and keeping people from commerce if they're a follower of Jesus. I certainly hope that the American church would care, pray, and speak out for the Chinese believers.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

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