With only a few weeks before the Feb. 5 opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the attempt by the US and its clique of faithful allies to mount a so-called “diplomatic boycott” has faltered. The Communist Party of Canada condemns this shameful exercise in hypocrisy, which is backed by the federal government and the parties in Parliament. This is the latest indication that support for Washington’s global strategy has become the virtually unquestioned basis of Canada’s foreign policy.
On the surface, this “boycott” by the “Five Eyes” imperialist countries (US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand) and a few others appeared puzzling from the beginning, since previous Olympic boycotts focused on the Games themselves, not on the irrelevant presence of politicians from various IOC member countries. The real purpose of the “diplomatic boycott” was to amplify the “new Cold War” campaign on all fronts against the People’s Republic of China, which poses an obstacle against US imperialism’s drive to preserve its global hegemony. This wide-ranging campaign includes a massive build-up of military forces in the eastern Pacific, sanctions and legal barriers to hamper China-based business interests, and not least, a torrent of falsehoods about the domestic situation in China itself, aimed at grooming public opinion to accept preparations for a US-led military action against China.
The potential risks of this dangerous imperialist strategy are enormous. Any clash between US and Chinese forces would immediately raise the possibility of a wider conflict, and whether by design or accident, even create the terrifying conditions for global thermonuclear war. The increase in wasteful arms spending linked to this anti-China militarist campaign diverts the funds needed for social programs, housing, renewable energy and other urgent priorities demanded by the labour and democratic movements.
The Communist Party also points out that the public relations side of this effort relies heavily on themes which have long been employed to whip up Sinophobia – especially the shameful racist tropes about a non-existent “Chinese threat”. These ugly lies first emerged precisely from the “Five Eyes” countries, where the colonizing powers used a range of genocidal tactics against the original peoples. Every democratically-minded person should recall that the three Winter and Summer Olympic Games held in Canada all took place on stolen Indigenous lands, and that Indigenous land defenders and their allies today face arrests and imprisonment for opposing resource extraction projects on these lands. The ruling class which attacks China today is engaged in a hypocritical campaign to silence and criminalize movements which struggle to oppose the crimes of the Israeli apartheid regime against the Palestinian people, and to stifle the voices of dissent at home, including those who present alternative information about the realities of modern China.
For all these reasons, this racist anti-China “new cold war” campaign must be exposed as a cover for US imperialism’s desperate efforts to shore up its sagging global domination. In the interests of world peace and multilateral cooperation to meet the challenges facing the peoples of our planet, we call on all progressive people and movements to condemn the so-called “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada