Status: 09.12.2021 5:09 p.m.
The IOC leadership meeting could have been routine, but just before the Beijing Olympics, questions about the IOC’s position on the human rights situation in China are getting louder. And then there is the Peng Shuai case.
On Monday evening, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki announced: The US will diplomatically boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. In other words: The athletes are welcome to travel to Beijing, but official representatives of the Biden government will demonstratively stay away from the games.
The reaction from Beijing was not long in coming. The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted sharply to the US decision. This is a violation of “political neutrality in sport”. Washington will have to “pay” for it.
“Olympic spirit and politics incompatible!”
At the IOC in Lausanne, they first took cover: this was a purely political decision. With the Olympic spirit is not compatible with politics anyway. The next day, IOC President Thomas Bach told the German Press Agency that the IOC would not be able to resolve any political conflicts with the Olympic Games. The IOC does not have the power or the means to change political systems. The IOC is also politically neutral on the question of the US boycott.
Meanwhile, Australia, Canada and Great Britain have joined the American diplomatic boycott. Nonetheless, Bach insists on the “apolitical” Olympic Games standpoint. This is the only way to keep 206 National Olympic Committees together. Politicization would mean the end of the Olympic Games, said Bach in front of around 100 journalists in an online press conference.
The cheerful diplomacy of Thomas Bach – 2014 with Vladimir Putin in Sochi …
Image: picture alliance / David Goldman
… and in 2017 with the Chinese head of state Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Image: picture alliance / Denis Balobou
Wrestling for the German attitude
In Berlin, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are fighting for an official German position on the explosive boycott question. You are counting on a common European solution. Friedrich Merz, currently a candidate for the CDU presidency, calls on the EU to join the boycott. This is correct because of the ongoing human rights violations in China.
The European politician Nicola Beer (FDP) even speaks out in favor of a complete boycott of the Games in Beijing. From the office of the Federal President, it is said that there are no plans for Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier to travel to Beijing.
What will become of Peng Shuai?
The IOC has also been under pressure for weeks on a second issue. It’s about the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. On November 2, the Chinese accused former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault on the Weibo social media platform. The message was deleted immediately. Peng Shuai disappeared from the public for several days and was unavailable.
There is now a video showing the three-time Olympic champion in a restaurant in Beijing. However, the UN, the European Union, political observers and athletes from all over the world are convinced that the 35-year-old is still under house arrest. To this day, it is impossible for independent journalists and also for the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to question the Chinese woman about her allegations against the former top official. The WTA then canceled all tournaments in China.
A switch with aftermath
Bach’s line is different. In mid-November, he sat down in front of the camera with Peng Shuai on video, after which the IOC published a picture of the conversation. She is visibly well and asks to respect her privacy, so the brief press release of the IOC. As a precaution, the IOC’s press department stepped up again on December 2nd: They are in contact with the Chinese woman and will continue to do so. “Silent diplomacy” is the best “under these circumstances”.
The wind has probably never blown the IOC boss in the face as it has in the weeks since the switch. But also in the press conference on Wednesday evening, Bach repeated his position and stated in general: That highest human right be the one physical integrity. In the meantime, he has been able to convince himself personally in two video links with Peng Shuai that she is fine. And that’s why he’s also relieved. Of course, you stay in conversation with the Chinese, because after all it is about the personal fate of an athlete.
Critics see it as an attempt to sideline the Peng Shuai case as far as possible. Bach and the IOC have so far failed to provide evidence of what “silent diplomacy” has brought in this case – and also in the many other cases in which China is accused of serious human rights violations. It is already becoming apparent that the issue of human rights will continue to accompany the IOC until the Olympic Games in February and it is foreseeable that the Games themselves will also overshadow them.