Will the Beijing Games mark a turning point in the choice of host cities?

Will the choice of Beijing as host city for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics (February 4-20) be a milestone? It is indeed a possibility. For several months, human rights associations and NGOs have been calling on the IOC to reconsider the awarding of the 2022 Winter Games to China. Their arguments? The deprivation of freedom and expression, the hardening of Xi Jinping’s regime, and above all the repression of the Uyghurs.

“Since 2017, the Chinese government has engaged in a massive campaign of intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention, political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (northwest of the country), targeting Uyghurs , Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities in the region. It is estimated that at least one million people were detained in these centers”, says Doriane Lau, China researcher at Amnesty International.

Recently added to this list was the mysterious disappearance in November of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, after accusing a senior politician in her country of sexual assault.

Faced with this outcry, John Coates, one of the vice-presidents of the International Olympic Committee, had estimated, in October 2021, that the organization did not intend to hold China accountable for its respect for human rights. man. “We are not the government of the world, we must respect the sovereignty of the countries hosting the Games”, he had replied.

But internally, the Chinese case, after the Russian case for the Sochi Games in 2014, could well serve as a lesson. “It is not said officially but I am convinced of it, says Jean-Loup Chappelet, professor emeritus at the University of Lausanne and specialist in Olympic issues. If you look at the Brisbane 2032 assessment report, there is a whole page devoted to the political situation in the country and in particular its respect for human rights. Which is completely new.”

Previously, the evaluations only covered technical and sporting aspects. “Even if they don’t say it officially, they realized that it was absolutely necessary to be concerned about the countries hosting these major events”, analyzes Jean-Loup Chappelet.

“Today I think authoritarian countries like China, Russia for example, will not get these big events easily, if at all, because sports organizations want to avoid problems,” continues Jean-Loup Chappelet. Moreover, the cities chosen for the next editions confirm this logic: Paris in 2024, Milan in 2026, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032.

“The case of Brisbane is interesting because in front of it, there was Doha. The decision was taken quickly and caused the surprise of the capital of Qatar, which officially challenged this choice”, notes Carole Gomez, research director at IRIS (Institute of International and Strategic Relations) and specialist in the geopolitics of sport. Same mechanism for the Tokyo Games in 2021, where the Japanese city was preferred to Istanbul.

And if in recent years, the cities have abandoned any desire to host the Games, they are however positioning themselves again. Salt Lake City (USA), Sapporo (Japan) and Barcelona (Spain) have already expressed interest pfor the Winter Olympics from 2030. Just like the Southern Alps, which will submit an intention to apply to the French Olympic Committee. “There are more candidate cities today than for 2022, because they base their candidature on their heritage. It is the official policy of the IOC: to use what already exists. It therefore costs less and that is why the cities are coming back”, points out the specialist in Olympic matters, Jean-Loup Chappelet.

This financial question also played a role in the awarding of the 2022 Winter Games. While in 2013 six cities were candidates – Stockholm (Sweden), Krakow (Poland), Lviv (Ukraine), Oslo (Norway ), Beijing (China) and Almaty (Kazakhstan) – the first three withdrew the following year. Followed a few months later by Oslo. Only Almaty and Beijing then remained in the race.

The IOC thus did not have much choice. “What do you do when you have these two applications? asks Carole Gomez. The IOC therefore considered that Beijing would be a perfect organizer of these Games from the point of view of the organization, logistics and management of major sporting events. It is a choice by default, but fully conscious, that the IOC made in 2015, even if today we realize that it is very uncomfortable with the question of human rights “.

However, why is the IOC more embarrassed with China in 2022 than with China in 2008? “In 2008, there was already a very important focus on the question of Tibet, and on human rights violations in general, but we were in a different period, where human rights were a little less documented”, explains Antoine Bondaz, specialist in China, researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS) and teacher at Science Po. On the one hand, the political regime has hardened since 2008 and has become increasingly authoritarian. On the other hand, international mobilization has become more important, and the rivalry between China and the United States has strengthened.

“China’s image abroad has deteriorated and that explains why we have a diplomatic boycott in 2022, which we didn’t have in 2008,” deepens Antoine Bondaz. We should also remember that during the 2008 Olympics, Westerners hoped that by integrating China as best as possible on the scene of the major international powers, it would liberalize.

“Fourteen years later, other countries have obviously cast aside those illusions.”

Antoine Bondaz, researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research

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Still, limiting the attribution of the Games to democratic countries alone can be a delicate position for the IOC to defend. “We have to be realistic, slice Antoine Bondaz. You are not going to do democratic Olympics, or between democrats. Whether these Olympics take place in Sochi or Beijing, even if, ultimately, they are used internally to legitimize the regime, this also allows foreign countries to bring to light certain human rights violations, concludes the specialist in Chinese issues. If there hadn’t been the Winter Olympics in Beijing, there wouldn’t have been this diplomatic boycott, and we would, in fact, have talked less about human rights violations in China.”