{"id":70183,"date":"2022-02-02T12:30:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T01:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=70183"},"modified":"2022-02-02T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T01:01:08","slug":"why-the-beijing-olympics-are-so-vital-to-the-ccps-legitimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/why-the-beijing-olympics-are-so-vital-to-the-ccps-legitimacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Beijing Olympics are so vital to the CCP\u2019s legitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aside from fake snow and Covid-19, the Beijing Winter Games are\u00a0controversial<\/a>\u00a0for many reasons.<\/p>\n

They are a potent political symbol of the Chinese state\u2019s ambitions and authority. Held just a year after the\u00a0triumphalist 100-year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s founding<\/a>, General Secretary Xi Jinping is using the Olympics to showcase to the world that China is powerful and on track to fulfil its \u2018Chinese dream\u2019 of national rejuvenation.<\/p>\n

How will the CCP use the Games domestically to push this narrative and how will it be viewed by the rest of the world? What does the party hope to gain by the event being perceived as a success?<\/p>\n

Some observers<\/a>\u00a0see China\u2019s rise as generating a strategic power conflict and threatening the\u00a0liberal world order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others see China\u2019s rise as\u00a0more benign<\/a>, even appropriate for a country possessing 4,000 years of history and having made astonishing economic progress in the past 50 years.<\/p>\n

These contrasting interpretations have generated much debate internationally before the Olympics. Several Western countries have declared a diplomatic boycott because of concerns over the\u00a0shocking human rights violations<\/a>\u00a0of the Uyghur minority and deep repression in civil society,\u00a0particularly in Hong Kong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s reputation worsened after the\u00a0safety of tennis star Peng Shuai<\/a>, an alleged sexual assault victim, became a matter of international concern.<\/p>\n

Domestically, however, the Olympics are portrayed as something that\u00a0benefits the Chinese people<\/a>\u2014a way for Chinese athletes to achieve glory and to showcase the CCP\u2019s ability to execute a world-class sporting event. The underlying narrative glorifies the regime and legitimises the party\u2019s institutions and practices.<\/p>\n

Chinese media have struck back at the international criticism, saying the US is being\u00a0 \u2018arrogant and mean<\/a>\u2019\u00a0for criticising China\u2019s highly restrictive zero-Covid policies and the Americans\u00a0weren\u2019t invited<\/a>\u00a0to the Olympics in the first place.<\/p>\n

The domestic objective of these aggressive narratives is to reaffirm the primacy of the CPP as the best protector of China and its people against provocative elements in the international community.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Games represent an opportunity for Xi to reset the global rhetoric on China by welcoming the world to Beijing\u2019s \u2018smart, environmentally friendly<\/a>\u2019 Olympics.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s so-called wolf-warrior diplomacy<\/a> has hurt more than helped its interests abroad. As a result,\u00a0Xi has pleaded with party members<\/a>, Chinese diplomats and the Chinese media to \u2018set the tone right\u2019 by being more modest and humble, to promote a more \u2018credible, lovable and respectable image of China\u2019, a request with which they have grudgingly complied.<\/p>\n

For Xi, he needs both the party\u2019s compliance and acceptance. The party is at the core of everything he wants to do\u2014primarily, to deliver his Chinese dream to the people.<\/p>\n

While the Chinese dream has often been compared to the \u2018American dream\u2019, it is most emphatically not an American dream with Chinese characteristics.<\/p>\n

The American dream emphasises individual freedoms, social mobility and material success brought about by one\u2019s own efforts. In the Chinese dream, national wellbeing supersedes individual desires and achievements. As such, the CCP spins a narrative that\u00a0only the party can achieve the Chinese dream<\/a>\u00a0for the Chinese people.<\/p>\n

So, when someone or something is perceived as a threat to the party\u2019s centrality, the regime launches into self-preservation mode. For example, when some in the West raised\u00a0the prospect <\/a>that <\/a>Covid may have been engineered in a Chinese lab<\/a>, the Chinese Foreign Ministry struck back hard by endorsing a conspiracy theory that\u00a0the US Army introduced the virus to Wuhan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Xi\u2019s speech<\/a> on the 100th anniversary of the CCP\u2019s founding last year, party members were reminded that the party leadership, with Xi at its core, is \u2018the foundation and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend\u2019.<\/p>\n

The presentation of the Beijing Winter Olympics to the Chinese people is crucial to this overarching narrative that Xi and the party are creating. They need the Chinese people to adhere to the Chinese dream as\u00a0their\u00a0dream.<\/p>\n

This need is evident in the language Xi uses in public statements. Xi uses a great deal of imagery to exhort the\u00a0Chinese people to march together with the party<\/a>\u00a0on the same difficult path towards this shared vision of the future.<\/p>\n

As China continues to build its economy and burnish its great-power status with high-profile events such as these Winter Olympics, it is also attempting to show the world that its model of governance is supreme.<\/p>\n

These Games are a giant advertisement for the Chinese Communist Party, exemplifying the kind of sharp efficiency that high-tech, authoritarian governments can bring to events of this magnitude. It can also demonstrate how successful the government has been in containing Covid, though this has involved\u00a0blockading people in their own homes<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0discriminatory treatment of Africans living in China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, when global audiences cheer for their winter heroes, they will also be cheering for the CCP\u2014whether they like that or not.