Why boycotting the Beijing Olympics would strike a distinct cultural blow to the Chinese government

This column is the opinion of Cissy Suen, who is a first-generation Chinese Canadian living in Vancouver. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

There have been many calls to boycott the 2022 Winter Beijing Olympics on the grounds of the Uyghur genocide, breaches of international law in Hong Kong and the arbitrary detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, among others.

The central issue of debate is not whether there are enough reasons to boycott, but how effective a boycott would be. 

Take the 1980 US-led boycott against the Moscow Olympics; many countries joined America in protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, yet the invasion continued. However, what's forgotten in this argument: China is not Soviet Russia. Chinese culture is distinct and the role it plays in this debate cannot be understated.

My parents immigrated to Canada, my mother from Taiwan and my father from Hong Kong. While these islands are politically different, culturally they are similar to mainland China. Growing up, I was taught to respect my elders and work hard. But above all, I was taught the importance of appearances.

For example, if a relative has terminal cancer, make sure everything appears normal so they can happily live the rest of their life, without knowledge of imminent death (see Lulu Wang's The Farewell for a cinematic depiction).

Or if you're treated unfairly at work, don't speak up, because you must appear hard working and respectful.

These cultural characteristics are still prominent within China. Which means they also affect the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Appearances are everything in this culture. As the CCP celebrates 100 years of rule on July 1, it continues to paint an image of a powerful and successful China, all while jailing dissidents and censoring online posts that provoke "historical nihilism."

If China cannot appear as a country that can successfully host the Olympics, then it would be detrimental to that image of a successful and powerful country that the CCP wants to convey to both the Chinese people and the world.

Uniquely Canadian issue

The arbitrary detention of the Michaels makes the boycott a uniquely Canadian issue. 

Kovrig and Spavor were detained in China on Dec. 10, 2018 — nine days after Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, was arrested while changing planes in Vancouver. The arrests of Kovrig and Spavor are widely seen as acts of retaliation by Beijing for Meng's arrest, and they remain detained to this day.

If we want a diplomatic boycott, Canada must take the lead and start appealing to other countries immediately. 

After seeing the show of solidarity from diplomats from 26 countries outside the courts of the Michaels' trials, I believe we wouldn't be alone in our action — but if we are, we still take away China's ability to appear as a truly respected international player.

The Olympics are not apolitical.

John Carlos raised his fist on the podium of the 1968 Olympics to protest racial injustice, while Germany and Japan were not invited to the 1948 London Olympics following the Second World War. The 2008 Beijing Olympics, meanwhile, largely helped the world forget about the violent crackdown on Tibetan protests earlier that year.

Boycott the safest option

The Canadian Olympic Committee has cited other "substantial tools" in lieu of a boycott, but it's not clear what these other tools are or how substantial they'd really be.

Perhaps our athletes could stage a protest in Beijing, wear a pin on their uniforms or mention the genocide in interviews. But Chinese state censorship is strict and there's a possibility the CCP could throw another Canadian in detention under falsified charges.

It's safer for our athletes to formally boycott the games.

The last time the Olympics were held in a country committing genocide was arguably the 1936 Berlin Games. This was before the Holocaust but after the Nuremberg Laws had been enacted and the rights of Jews were substantially reduced.

Given that Uyghurs have been locked in "re-education camps," subject to forced labour, non-consensual sterilization and prohibited from speaking their language and practising their religion, why hasn't the International Olympic Committee — an organization that claims to promote peace — taken a stronger stance?

If the world's governments also won't take action and our businesses are too afraid of losing access to Chinese markets, then we, athletes and non-athletes, must do something.

A boycott of Beijing 2022 would completely destroy the appearance of the respected China the CCP wishes to portray. If we don't boycott, we will normalize a new level of atrocity that has not been realized since the Second World War.

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