China Says American Defectors at Olympics Prove Its Genocidal State Is 'Open and Diversified'

The Chinese state-run Global Times applauded its program recruiting Americans to compete in China’s name at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Tuesday as proof the country, which is currently engaging in genocide, is “open and diversified.”

Chinese athletes have so far delivered middling to poor performances at the Beijing Games, which began last week. China’s victories have come at the hands of foreigners who abandoned their countries to represent the Chinese Communist Party, most prominently freeskier Eileen Gu, an American who won a gold medal for China on Tuesday.

While Gu won her competition, other defecting Americans – most notably American Beverly Zhu (now competing as Zhu Yi) – have failed catastrophically, inviting a torrent of hate from Chinese “netizens” on government-controlled social media. The Global Times article appeared to be an attempt to paint China’s athlete naturalization program more favorably in the face of concerns that Chinese cyber-bullying of Zhu may discourage more talented athletes from defecting from their home countries to serve the communist regime.

The Global Times only lightly mentioned the Zhu affair in its article celebrating the program, claiming that she was met with “warm encouragement though she failed to impress some expectant audiences.” In reality, Zhu fell twice and prompted a flood of insults against her and Americans generally, with some griping that she illegitimately took the place of Chinese athletes who could have delivered a better performance at the Games. The invective reached a point of shame for the Chinese government, whose censors scrubbed Weibo of nearly 100 accounts for offending her, according to state media.

Several excellent performances by some “foreign faces” representing #TeamChina have reignited discussion on naturalizing top-tier athletes. Will the miracle of #GuAiling change Chinese sports fans’ mixed feelings on naturalized athletes? #Beijing2022 https://t.co/e93ARbf18B

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 8, 2022

Instead, the Times made the case that Zhu’s place on the Chinese team – and, more prominently, Gu’s – was a sign that China was a nation open to and tolerate of people of diverse backgrounds.

China’s Zhu Yi falls as she competes in the women’s single skating free skating of the figure skating team event during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on February 7, 2022. (ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)

“‘China naturalizing excellent athletes is also a result of the country’s development, as it has been more open and diversified,’ experts said,” according to the state propaganda outlet, which did not attribute that statement to anyone in particular. The article noted that various sports have handled naturalization differently, using as an example the Chinese Football (soccer) Association, which requires all defectors to be indoctrinated in communism: “naturalized players should be given traditional Chinese cultural education and learn Chinese history and contemporary affairs.”

“Military training” as China’s footballers ordered to stay trim, beat virus. (Shanghai Shenhua/AFP HANDOUT)

The rules first implemented in soccer expanded in 2020, when the Justice Ministry announced that athletes with “international recognition” – meaning those who could bring wins home – would be eligible for citizenship based on more lax rules. While Eileen Gu has insisted on not revealing her citizenship status, China does not allow dual citizenship and athletes need to be citizens to be on the national Olympics team. Zhu gave up her American citizenship openly.

An alleged professor identified as Zhang Yiwu was quoted in the article as stating the overwhelming expressions of hatred and disgust at Zhu were not representative of the Chinese public.

“[A]s China continues to develop and open up, mainstream Chinese society views it normally and open-mindedly,” Zhang said of recruiting foreign athletes and offering them citizenship. “More people have started to realize that naturalization is the result of two-way selection in a diversified China, which consists of China’s need for sporting talents, and athletes’ identifying with China.”

The article allowed for the fact that many athletes who enter the naturalization process “have faced disciplinary and performance challenges, and some in the public have accused naturalized players of being unpatriotic, money-hungry ‘mercenaries.’”

China’s attempt to portray itself as embracing of diverse backgrounds is entirely undermined by the fact that the communist government is currently engaging in genocide. The Communist Party has built as many as 1,200 concentration camps in East Turkistan, an occupied western region the government refers to as Xinjiang, since 2017, used to imprison, torture, and enslave members of Muslim ethnic groups, primarily the Uyghur people. Multiple governments, including America’s, have denounced the crimes committed in China as a genocide an an independent tribunal found China guilty of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt last year.

In addition to torturing, indoctrinating, and enslaving Uyghurs in camps, China has engaged in a mass forced sterilization campaign against Uyghur women to prevent the group from growing – a major factor in the Uyghur Tribunal’s ruling that the practices in East Turkistan constitute genocide.

Outside of the Uyghur genocide, Chinese government officials regularly brutalize ethnic minorities in Tibet and Inner Mongolia. China also has a poor track record with respecting foreigners. In 2020, Chinese officials in Guangzhou launched an apartheid campaign to keep black people – Guangzhou has a large African diaspora population – from patronizing restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. Officials claimed that black residents were causing the spread of Chinese coronavirus, despite the virus’s origins in Wuhan, China, and landlords and employers followed suit, leaving African immigrants sleeping on the street even when they had the money to pay their rents or for a hotel room.

The Chinese government never apologized for the Guangzhou episode and urged outraged African governments to “readjust their way of thinking.”

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