© AP
BEIJING-POLICY
Despite the diplomatic boycott, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping managed to attract a diverse group of presidents, royals and other dignitaries to the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
And it doesn’t seem relevant that most of them have represented countries that hardly ever won medals —if they even compete in Beijing
What does matter, from Beijing’s perspective, is presenting the image that China has emerged as a global power whose authoritarian style of governance can go hand in hand with a world dominated by the United States and other democracies.
“There is a strong authoritarian lean to the list of attending leaders,” said Andrew Yeo, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America and a fellow at The Brookings Institution. “It is a very different list of global leaders, compared to the democracy summit organized by Biden in December.”
The guest list for Friday includes Vladimir Putin who has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Also in attendance were the heads of much of the former Soviet Union, and the unelected rulers of several oil-rich Arab states.
This leaves plenty of room for diplomatic intrigue and behind-the-scenes deals by those who have made the trip.
A side effect of the pandemic has been that opportunities to talk with Xi, even behind a mask, are more coveted. The Chinese leader has not left his country in more than two years.
China has severely limited international travel, imposing a zero-tolerance policy in an effort to combat the coronavirus.
So anyone who wants to meet China’s most powerful leader in decades or other top officials like Premier Li Keqiang in person has to make the trip, no matter how much power they hold in their nation.
And therefore, the leaders of various nations have been here, from Argentina and Egypt to Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan
Those who are not are also striking. The United States and other democratic and like-minded countries did not send political delegations, as part of a diplomatic boycott of the games — declared or implied.
India became the latest nation to join the boycott on Thursday, following it emerged that a Chinese military commander, involved in deadly clashes with Indian forces on their shared border in 2020, had been chosen as torchbearer earlier. of the games.
Although the decisions to keep some officials on the sidelines have tempered the “propaganda coup” that Xi would seek to deliver, the number of leaders China did attract is a testament to the country’s growing economic power, according to Anthony J. Saich, an expert from the Kennedy School at Harvard University.
“They don’t want to be perceived as indifferent to China,” he said.
He added that the mood this year is very different from the Summer Olympics also held in Beijing in 2008.
“So there was international and national enthusiasm for the Games held in China,” he said.
This means that the countries most likely to win medals, save for winter powerhouse Russia, are not among those whose dignitaries are present in the Bird’s Nest boxes of honour.
At least eight of the 20 countries that sent high-level officials do not have athletes competing in these Games instead. These include hot Cambodia, desert Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which have at least one indoor ski slope in Dubai.
Other nations with political participation here sent only one competitor in sports. This is the case of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, each with a skier.
No leader except Xi is watched as closely as Putin, a winter sports enthusiast, who might use his visit to project the image of a head of state attending to normal business, even at a time when the United States and its allies fear preparing for war.
Putin’s presence is also a reminder that Russia is in the Olympics, even if its athletes cannot compete under their own flag.
Wearing his coat, Putin waved from the box as his country’s delegation paraded, once more identified as the Russian Olympic Committee, as sanction for a doping scandal.
“This is more than a meeting on the fringes,” Yeo said. “It involves the leaders of two great powers seeking to strengthen their diplomatic and economic relations at a time when both countries feel empowered to challenge the United States.”
The Russian president met with Xi on Friday morning. It was their first in-person meeting since 2019.
In his opening remarks, Putin said relations between the two countries are progressing in “a spirit of friendship and strategic partnership.”
“In fact, they have become unprecedented. This is an example of dignified relations that support mutual development,” Putin stressed.