50 China The Economist January 29th 2022
plained that supplies were inadequate and
that people could not get urgent medical
attention. Restrictions were lifted on Janu
ary 24th, after one of China’s longest,
toughest and biggest lockdowns.
But several other cities have also im
posed tight controls. Social media are filled
with complaints about the suffering this is
causing, and the disruption to lunar new
year plans. Officials say travel is fine as
long it is not between areas affected by co
vid19. But they often define those areas
broadly. Desperate people in Beijing have
been writing “I want to go home” on Weibo,
a socialmedia platform, fearing zealous
officials will prevent them from seeing
family members in their home towns. In the loop
The spectacle may not attract as many
viewers as the one in 2008. China’s first
staging of an Olympic games was popular
at home. To bolster its image, the party has
long encouraged Chinese to remember
preCommunist days when, as officials
like to recall, the country was seen in the
West as the “sick man” of Asia. In 2008 it
won not only the most gold medals in its
Olympic history, but more than any other
country at those games, exceeding Ameri
ca’s haul by 12. China was proved mighty.
But it is not a wintersports superpow
er. Gracenote, an analytics company, says
that predicting China’s performance at the
winter games is tricky. It reckons the coun
try may get only six gold medals. That
would see it placed far behind the front
runners: Norway (22), Germany (12) and
Russia (11). America is tipped to get seven.
China has a good excuse for failing to dom
inate winter sports. It is a relative newcom
er to them. Skiing became popular only in
the 1990s with the rapid growth of an afflu
ent middle class: its members fill slopes
around arid Beijing, where snow is usually
supplied (as it will be this year) by ma
chines. But it remains a niche activity.
The government will try to stoke patrio
tism by showing off its organisational abil
ity, including the extraordinary lengths to
which it will go to prevent the virus spread
ing from the foreigners. This involves a
“closedloop management system” de
signed to keep participants separate from
everyone else. Buildings inside the “loop”
have been sealed off with fences patrolled
by guards. The roughly 11,000 athletes,
support staff and media from abroad will
be closely watched.
It will be difficult to manage. The ven
ues are widely scattered, with the farthest
flung ones located about 200km by road
from central Beijing. People travelling be
tween them must use dedicated transport
or train carriages. Officials are so nervous
of the virus leaking (a few dozen people ar
riving for the games from abroad have test
ed positive) that they have told people tostay away from any Olympic vehicle in
volved in an accident and wait for “special
ists” to arrive.
It may help the party that nationalist
sentiment, which it has worked hard to
foster, is running high. This makes it easy
to blame foreigners, especially Western
ers, for any difficulties that China may
face. Many nationalists believe the party’s
conspiracy theories, including one that the
virus was created in an American military
lab. They rallied round the government
after America announced a diplomatic
boycott of the games over Chinese human
rights abuses in Xinjiang and elsewhere.
Several other Western countries have fol
lowed America’s lead, announcing that
they will not send senior officials to the
event. Online forums in China have filled
with scorn. Many Chinese netizens accuse
the West of politicising the Olympics.
Yet for China the games are highly polit
ical. This will be evident at the opening
ceremony, to be held at the “bird’s nest” na
tional stadium where the summer Olym
pics began in 2008. State media say the
main theme of the performance this time
will be the building of a “community with a
shared future for mankind”—one of Mr
Xi’s favourite slogans. Western govern
ments read it as shorthand for efforts to
create a world that accepts China’s auto
cratic form of government, ignores its vio
lations of human rights and rejects West
ern domination of global rulemaking. An
adapted version of the slogan is China’s of
ficial motto for the games: “Together for a
shared future”.
China’s efforts to foster Olympic cama
raderie could perhaps be spoiled by Russia,
whose president, Vladimir Putin, is due to
attend the opening ceremony. Mr Xi is
doubtless hoping that his friend will not
disrupt the games by repeating in Ukrainewhat happened in Georgia on the opening
day of the summer games in 2008: a Rus
sian invasion. But even if Mr Putin were to
be so impolite, China would—as it did
then—refrain from issuing any public re
buke (see Chaguan).
It will not be so restrained should any
one dare to challenge the party directly. On
January 18th a Chinese Olympic official
warned athletes that they could face pun
ishment for “any behaviour or speech”
deemed to be against the Olympic spirit or
Chinese law. It is far from clear what would
happen should athletes balk at strict covid
controls. Angry scenes are possible.
Security will be intense. Local govern
ments have been instructed to prevent pe
titioners from travelling to the capital.
These are usually people who want to draw
the central government’s attention to local
grievances, not antiparty activists. But
people who may cause embarrassing
scenes—even handing out a flyer can be
deemed such—are always unwelcome near
official festivities. The party is using its
most trusted supporters to make sure
events run smoothly. Members of the par
ty, or people applying to join it, have been
given preference when recruiting volun
teers to staff the venues.
China’s security forces will remain on
high alert for weeks. The Olympics close on
February 20th, but the Paralympics will not
be held until the next month, from March
4th to 13th. The annual session of China’s
parliament is normally held in early
March, too. In 2020 the government post
poned the session until May because of the
outbreak of covid in Wuhan. With cases of
covid19 reappearing, it is possible that of
ficials will again announce a postpone
ment. But the Olympics aresetto proceed.
They will be a tough earlytestin Mr Xi’s
hopedfor year of triumph.nAs close as they’ll get