China’s position in the global pecking order is shifting, undoubtedly, and their latest spat with the United States is as good an indicator as any that they are seeking to continue their aggressive push for superpower status.
The far east nation’s path to the top has not been a pretty one, however, and near-constant complaints of horrendous human rights abuses have forced US President Joe Biden to announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The Chinese government fired back at Biden this week, with all of the tact of an 8th grader.
China’s top English-language propagandists mocked President Joe Biden on Tuesday following the announcement that he would allow the U.S. to play in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics but withhold uninvited politicians, comparing the move to charging “an appearance fee to go to public restrooms.”
The Biden administration has branded the move a “diplomatic boycott,” claiming it was “the right move” and sent a “clear” message that America did not approve of China’s long list of ongoing human rights atrocities, most prominently the genocide of the Uyghur ethnic people through the use of mass sterilization campaigns and concentration camps.
Chinese government-run media outlets, their opinion personalities, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry have all repeatedly noted that the diplomats Biden’s officials claim are “boycotting” the event were never invited and play no role in the actual execution of the athletic events scheduled to occur.
And that wasn’t all:
Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the government-run propaganda newspaper Global Times, called the Biden administration “super narcissistic” in response to the loud declaration that it would not send politicians to an athletic event and, like Chen, implied that Biden administration officials are Chinese coronavirus superspreaders.
In a separate message, Hu joked that the “diplomatic boycott” was akin to asking “for an appearance fee to go to public restrooms in foreign cities.”
While the quips were certainly a bit more playful than Chinese pundits are accustomed to, they belie a real sense that Beijing is turning ever more belligerent in the 21st century…which is something that the US, and the rest of the world, will likely need to deal with sooner rather than later.
