The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics draws to a close today, and few will mourn its passing. The spectacle of a totalitarian regime mounting a Games while prosecuting a genocide have rightly drawn denunciations, diplomatic boycotts and precious few television viewers. But this Olympiad was instructive in at least one important respect: to remind the free world how the Chinese Communist Party eventually corrupts everything it touches, for its own ends.
To be sure, Xi Jinping’s regime had a willing partner in the International Olympic Committee, whose record of rule-bending is well-known. Its extravagant demands alienated the Norwegian public to such an extent that Oslo withdrew its bid in 2014 to host the Games. The Norwegians didn’t like the idea that the IOC bosses wanted the red-carpet treatment, including an audience with the King, chauffeurs, dedicated traffic lanes and more. In that sense, the IOC was the perfect, ready partner for Beijing.
If the Beijing Games teach us anything, it’s that doing business with communist China will always require sacrificing principles
True to form, IOC chief Thomas Bach dined during the Games with tennis star Peng
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