Name? Xi Jinping
Westphalian identity? Chinese
Age? 68
Why is he in the news? On the fourth of February Xi will open the Winter Olympics in China. Two weeks before the start more and more interesting little stories are trickling in, time to see them in a bigger picture.
Why do we care? Let’s sum all the stories up. First, you have Xi’s zero Covid approach for China which is definitely threatened by athletes arriving. One response was to ban masses of spectators. Second, is the matter of free speech. Two weeks ago, European athletes were warned against taking personal smartphones over security concerns and last week athletes were warned not to expect the International Olympic Committee to protect them if they stood up for human rights … sounds comforting!
Why should you care? The Olympics are critical for Xi to present his vision of China to the whole world. However, they are also a critical moment for anyone who cares about human rights to use it as a platform. These two sides are (somewhat very) incompatible. How this will play out and who will have the upper hand, in the end, is something you should care 8/10 about.
Who else cares? Polish President Andrzej Duda already booked his tickets and is attending the Olympics, an interesting message from his side, given the boycott by the United States and some EU allies. But given he was promised a meeting with Xi himself we can see the “selling” points now. On the top of his agenda is to use Poland’s geographical location to enhance its role in Europe’s trade with China.
Any further comments? On a funny side note, something we stumbled upon on Politico: “The German foreign ministry told POLITICO on Tuesday: “We are currently coordinating a common line with our EU partners.” Which poses the question, with whom are they coordinating if Denmark and Belgium are boycotting the Olympics diplomatically but Poland’s President is attending …?
