Sportswashing and the dangers of self-censorship
In a rare act of bravery FC Cologne have decided to pull out of a shared training camp in China saying they should not support “such a totalitarian and brutal dictatorship”. This stands in stark contrast to the cowardice of Arsenal FC when they disavowed the opinion of one its star players Mesut Özil.
Stefan Müller-Römer, a board member for FC Cologne put it bluntly.
“I understand that Germany can’t completely get by without China and that there is an exchange between the two countries but we don’t need China in sport and I stand by that.
In China human rights are being massively disregarded. A complete surveillance state is being built, one worse than even George Orwell could have imagined. I have followed developments in China for more than 20 years and I have been there several times. I know what I am talking about.”
China is always quick to retaliate in these matters, pulling an Arsenal game off the air regardless of the club’s hasty retreat and attacking Mesut Özil for his opinion, an opinion backed by UN statements on the horrifying events in Xinjiang. The NBA was similarly punished when a mere manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted his support for Hong Kong. The enormous over-reaction is designed for one thing only, to ensure people stay quiet and do not comment on what is happening in China.
Even in Hong Kong people are fearful of expressing their views. It can cost you a job, a marriage, family relations. These are genuine impacts on the lives in a city where administrative bodies have long been co-opted by the CCP. Directors at companies including Cathay Pacific, HSBC and the HKTD have all left and these are those we know about. It’s understandable people are wary of openly discussing issues when you do not know who’s listening.
However when international bodies, from sports clubs to companies and governments stay silent they directly help the CCP maintain an air of self-censorship and hamper Hong Kong’s wish for universal suffrage, and proper enquiry into police actions and to maintain their freedoms into the future. They essentially consent to the suppression of people, rights and free speech.
Sportswashing is the use of high profile sports events to project a positive image and hide negative facts. It is practiced by authoritarian states across the world, from Qatar hosting the World Cup to China hosting the Winter Olympics. Even in 2008, China promised to allow protests in designated areas as part of its bid to host and then reneged on that promise once the event was underway.
The simple fact is that regardless of the NBA saying they stood by free speech no one will ever dare to stick their head above the parapet again. Lesson learned and China silences a legion of people with a voice. The same goes for Arsenal FC. In pulling the game, and reaction from China fans, it’s helped to silence anyone else from ever freely airing their views.
Has a single business, with their touted brand values, made a single comment on their business affairs in China and how they’re associating with a state that is forcibly assimilating an entire culture into CCP ideology.
Yaya Toure, who plays for Qingdao Huanghai, had this to say: “But I think footballers have to stay with football and politicians do politics because you cannot be involved in these kinds of things.”
Yet Mesut Özil was on point.
“Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”
The idea that sports is apolitical and that it’s fine for brands and the sports they sponsor to tacitly accept authoritarianism, brutality and suppression of rights and free speech has to stop. Sports has always been political, and some of the greatest moments reflect this, from the raised, black fists of 1968 to the exclusion of South Africa from sports over apartheid.
Simply put, for fear of losing out fans in China, global brands, teams and institutions are indulging in self-censorship, meeting China’s aims to pull a blanket of silence over the world and suppress support for basic rights.
Just recently China changed the charter of one of China’s top universities, including dropping the phrase “freedom of thought” and the inclusion of a pledge to follow the Communist party’s leadership, that sparked fierce debate and a rare act of student defiance.
What chance do those students have when the world meekly stays quiet?
What chance does Hong Kong have? As a child of the protests puts it: “I was always scared — whether I would get shot, get arrested or even lose my life. But if we don’t come out because we’re afraid, there would be even fewer people out there.”
That’s the risk they’re taking in the fight for freedom, is it too much to ask the world to do the bare minimum and use the free speech they’re granted?
The world needs to remember its right to speak up.
