China started the final day of the Tokyo Olympics with a slim lead at the top of the medals table but attempts to whip up nationalist sentiment and use the event as a play for soft power ahead of the Beijing Winter Games next year threaten to undermine the reputational boost provided by its sporting achievements.
The Communist party has built a formidable sports programme around success in the Olympics, which it sees as an important source of national pride and international legitimacy. But China’s success in Tokyo has been accompanied by bursts of nationalism and political displays by its athletes.
China has performed strongly in sports that it traditionally dominates, including table tennis, diving, weightlifting, badminton and shooting. This has been supplemented by breakthrough performances in events where it has not traditionally been strong.
Su Bingtian broke the Asian record in the men’s 100-metre competition with a time of 9.83 seconds, and became the first Chinese national to compete in an Olympics final for the event. In the women’s quadruple sculls rowing event, China won the country’s first gold since the Beijing Games in 2008 and broke the world record by more than a second.
If China finishes the games with the most gold medals, it would beat the US for the first time since 2008, at a time when it is engaged in a tense diplomatic and trade dispute with Washington and its allies.
Political undertones were ‘unavoidable’
Yet analysts said that online nationalism, political displays by Chinese athletes and criticisms of China’s security crackdowns in Xinjiang and Hong Kong risked undermining the team’s sporting performance.
The International Olympic Committee issued a warning to China after Zhong Tianshi and Bao Shanju, who won gold in cycling, wore badges of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong during their medals ceremony in possible contravention of rules. The IOC said it had received assurances that it would not happen again.
The Games have also re-awoken the “spirit of Japanese resistance”, a reference to China’s fight against Japanese invaders during the second world war, according to some online commentators. They were displeased after a near-perfect performance by Xiao Ruoteng in the men’s all-round gymnastics competition was beaten by Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto, with some alleging anti-Chinese bias.
Susan Brownell, an expert on Chinese sport at the University of Missouri-St Louis, said the political undertones of the Games were unavoidable given the convergence of China’s reputational damage from the pandemic and its historic rivalry with Japan.
Some human rights groups have called for countries to boycott the Winter Games because of China’s policies in Xinjiang, where it has detained more than 1m Uyghurs in internment camps, and a clampdown on Hong Kong following pro-democracy protests in 2019. The US has said the question was “on the agenda” for discussions with its allies.
Brownell said officials in Beijing faced a delicate balancing act domestically, where Chinese sporting programmes have long been criticised for a single-minded focus on medals and political gains while ignoring physical activities for the masses.
“They have to be careful about anger at losses and nationalism but there is also a problem if there is too much attention on winning medals,” she said.
China prepares for Beijing 2022
Beijing was determined to become a successful Olympics host after a failed bid to host the Summer Games in the wake of the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in June 1989.
When it held the Summer Games in 2008, much of the city was rebuilt and everyone from taxi drivers to residents were given lessons in civility. China topped the medal table for the first time that year.
As the party leadership prepares for Beijing to become the first location to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, it has struggled to ensure that enthusiasm for the Games drowns out calls for a boycott.
Minky Worden, a campaigner at Human Rights Watch and editor of China’s Great Leap, a book on the 2008 Games, said the pressure could lead Beijing to release political prisoners.
“There can’t be a double standard where China gets to violate human rights, crushes press freedom and still hosts the Olympics as if it was business as usual,” she said.
Chinese state media has emphasised the displays of camaraderie between its athletes and their international competitors.
One such moment was a joyous hug between Chinese gymnasts Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing after they won gold and silver in the balance beam and were cheered on by the US team’s Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee.
Despite their success, some Chinese athletes have been hit by nationalist attacks if they have been seen as disloyal.
Yang Qian, champion in the women’s 10m air rifle, was criticised ahead of the event after posting pictures of Nike shoes. Nationalists have targeted the US sports company over its statements about forced labour in Xinjiang.
But when Yang was asked what winning meant to her after the competition, she noted that 2021 was the centenary of the Chinese Communist party and added: “I’m so happy that this golden medal is a gift to my country.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
