Front Burner - Inside Beijing’s ‘closed loop’ Olympic Games

Episode Date: February 2, 2022

In 2015, Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Since then, COVID-19, deteriorating relations with the West, allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and a resulting diplomatic boycott put a damper on the Games. Yet China plowed forward, promising to put on a spectacular show while keeping out COVID-19, through the use of tight, non-negotiable safety measures. Today, we’re talking to The National’s Adrienne Arsenault from inside the rigid operation created to keep Beijing’s 21 million residents safe from COVID-19 — and to keep the world’s athletes, journalists and Winter Olympics' staff fenced in.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. The International Olympic Committee has the honor to announce the host city of the Olympic Winter Games 2022. Beijing.

Seven years ago now, Beijing won the 2022 Winter Olympic bid that few major countries seem to want. And China's leader, Xi Jinping, pledged to deliver a spectacular show that would elevate China's global standing. The world expects China. China is ready. China's global standing. And then, in 2020, COVID turned the world upside down. Despite growing calls to delay or cancel the Games, increasingly antagonistic relations with the West, suddenly, after 1,019 days, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were whisked away from detention and homeward

bound to Canada. Allegations of human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. China doesn't want the world to see Xinjiang up close. To see the crackdown, it calls an answer to terrorism. There have only been fleeting glimpses of swelling detention centers, but now there's real proof. Secret blueprints of mass incarceration and indoctrination of Muslims. And even a diplomatic boycott of the Games. We will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic Paralympic Games this winter. China pressed on. This Friday, the 2022 Olympic Games kick off, hosted by a city that's been effectively uninvited from their own event. Adrienne Arsenault is there, co-host of CBC's

The National, reporting from Beijing where officials say the world's athletes, journalists, and Olympic staff are completely fenced off in a bid to keep the virus contained. So we thought we'd ask her how it's going. Hey, Adrienne, it's so good to have you back. Hey, Jamie, how are you? I am great. Thank you. So look, the last time that you and I spoke was at the last Olympics. You were in Tokyo, which was the first real test of these so-called COVID games. And what are your impressions of Beijing in comparison? How does it compare?

Yeah, it's so funny. I was thinking about that conversation the other day that, you know, we thought, oh, you know, the two weeks soft quarantine with that 15 minutes out a day allowed to go to this convenience store was otherworldly and it was very strict. I mean, you know what, you know, we're like reporters, you know, we're feral creatures, like we're not indoor cats. But now when I look at Tokyo through the lens of Beijing, Tokyo was very permissive, like very permissive. That's so wild to hear you say that Tokyo was so permissive in comparison, because I remember when we had this conversation in the summer, it just it felt like you were describing an episode of The Handmaid's Tale. I wonder if you could just walk me through, you get off the plane, you go through this gauntlet, what happens?

The airport is entirely dedicated to this experience, or at least the part of it we saw. There is nobody else in it, and you're greeted immediately by hazmat suits. And again, people are just sort of pointing, come, follow this direction, show the code, go to the COVID testing, which is, I mean, we've all been COVID tested a lot now. This is pretty epic. It is a very deep swab in your throat and a very deep one in your nose. Like you're thinking it might come out the back of your head. Exaggeration. But you could hear

all sorts of people kind of slightly taken aback a bit. They take this very seriously, these swabs. So then you go get your luggage. It's all lined up. And then you're put on a bus. And the bus goes to one of a particular hotel that you're staying at. Everything is in this closed loop from the moment you get off the plane. And it's a bit hard to explain. Like if you were to imagine a big circle, that would be wrong because there's no freedom of movement within that big circle. It's more like a series of one-way streets that are heading to a specific destination, like a maze, basically. And you can only go in a certain direction to a certain approved building. And between fences and checkpoints and electronic

surveillance and guards, you're not getting out of that maze. You go to your hotel, you go to the venue, and you go to the office, and that is it until you leave the country. What happens on that first day is when you finally get to your hotel, someone greets you, they take you right up to your room and they put you in the room and they say, listen, stay here. Do not open this door until we call you and tell you that your results are negative. And some of our journalists friends have been you know sending out pictures showing a tape someone wrote you know I heard this sound of like packing tape and I looked at the people and I was being taped into my room with no way you're not leaving and then you start the every 24 hours you get that PCR test again, and you have to stay negative

throughout the whole thing. Adrienne, like how are you moving around? Are you like walking to venues or? I wish. Oh, wow. I wish because in 2008, we walked everywhere. You can't walk anywhere. You must take the official transportation. So there's buses that go only from A to B. Sometimes you can take a vehicle, an official vehicle that will take you from, say, the IBC to the Athletes Village, let's just say. But that vehicle goes on roads where people of Beijing also drive. So that car becomes part of the closed loop and there are rules. So we tried the other day, we saw something of the window and asked the driver, oh, can we slow down and roll down the. So we tried the other day, we saw something of the window and asked the driver, oh, can we slow down and roll down the window so we can take a picture? And he said, no.

He said, I'm sorry, but if you roll down the window, I can't stop. Okay. So we kept going. Another rule that all Beijing drivers have been told is that if one of these Olympic vehicles gets into an accident, do not approach. Do not approach it to help. Wait for officials to come and approach it. And it would be really a matter of seconds before that happened. But people have been told there will be no interaction, period. Do not approach it. Adrian you mentioned electronic surveillance I wonder could you tell me a little bit more about what that what that looks like so I was here here in 2008 and sometimes you were followed. I mean, I remember watching a man follow us for an hour with a camera. He took so many pictures of us. The surveillance doesn't look like that in this era. It doesn't look like anything. It looks like

nothing and yet it's everywhere. So of course there is this app, this My 2022 app that you have to install. It tracks you. You have to enter your health data every single morning. We have this accreditation that we wear around our necks that acts like a passport. It's not just a piece of plastic, though. It's got a chip in it. So let's say you go to get your every 24-hour test test and maybe you've missed it by like an hour. Well, that's a bad thing. When you go to pass through a checkpoint, your name is connected to

this chip. It will flash up on a screen and you will be stopped. And it will say, you're not going anywhere. You go immediately to get that test. So you are followed everywhere electronically. And the presumption is that given the way of the world right now, given the concerns about cybersecurity, there are no Fitbits, no Bluetooth headphones, you're not bringing your laptop, your personal phone, your personal iPad, none of it. We have burner phone is a terrible term, but it just means a phone that is untethered. It's a local phone. We put a SIM card in it. We will not bring it back to Canada.

It will be completely wiped. It will not be connected to any of our systems. These are not our laptops that we've brought from home because everything is being tracked and watched and everything is a potential problem. Wow. And so this is probably going to sound like an obvious statement, but this is all happening under Beijing's COVID zero mandate. Chinese people have been making a lot of sacrifices in the name of the country's zero COVID policy. Entering China means three weeks quarantine costing around a thousand euros. In the city of Chengdu, contact cases are identified using GPS data on their smartphones.

Spending just 10 minutes within 800 meters of a positive case can land you in quarantine. In November, just... And so can you tell me a little bit more about about what's happening with that? So it's really interesting then the name is changing a little bit. So it's it's a subtle thing. It's gone from being called COVID zero to dynamic clearing. And I'm not I'm not entirely sure that the distinction is, you get lost in what one means, but basically that the whole concept of it is to, at the first site of an infection, it is crushed. Everything is thrown at that infection to ensure that there is no spread. And that's how they are determining that they're not going to tolerate. Just think of it

as China saying, no, we will not tolerate COVID. We will not tolerate dissent on one level. We will not tolerate COVID. So you can have a city of millions of people and a large swath of it will be shut down, sealed off. You're not leaving your apartment for a matter of like two or three cases. On China's lockdown, yet another region due to a handful of COVID-19 cases. Residents of Xi'an unable to leave home even for essentials. The government now delivers groceries door to door. The city of Yuzhou, about 800 kilometers from Beijing, is locked down too after just three cases of COVID turned up there. Only those working to contain the virus are allowed out in the two cities. You know, we have a colleague who has a parent who came back to China from Canada,

had to do 21 days in quarantine. There was a laser sort of put across her front door. And so the decree was, you're staying inside for 21 days. Well, one day she sort of opened the door to put her garbage out while the laser went off. Her phone app, her code, because everybody has to have a green code, went off, arrived the police, the public health to say, are you okay? What's wrong? Why did you open your door? I wanted to put my garbage out. No, no, you're going to call us if you want to put your garbage out. We'll take care of it. Do not open the door. And people are worried about this code changing color on their phones. Because in Beijing now, and I only see it because

I look at it through the bus window as we drive by, and I'm like that kid pressed up against the glass seeing real life out there, just desperately wanting to get out there. But if you want to go take a taxi, if you live in Beijing, or you want to go into a restaurant, you must show your code. And there's another code that establishes that you were there. So one says, yes, you're healthy, you're okay. The other one says, all right, now we know where you are. In the event that you are a close contact, we can find you. And they find people. So in Shanghai, there was a woman, I believe, who had gone shopping. Turns out she was a close contact. Authorities came in and shut the building overnight with everybody else who just happened to be in there.

Well, they tested it, secured it, tested everyone and made sure it was fine. This sounds to, you know, I know it sounds like a lot, like for outsiders, this sounds extreme, but that's not how it's perceived here. the city of 21 million people and and i guess like what's it like for them having been essentially uninvited to the games right locked they're they're like locked out of what's meant to be this massive celebration in their city, and what's their take right now on the fact that this is even going ahead? So when I answer this, it's in part I know this because we have hired a colleague, an extraordinary colleague, who is outside the closed loop. And we are working together, and he has been able to talk to people,

and we're having conversations about what he's hearing from them. We have great internet service. Everything is recorded, this woman said. So it's not really a pity. Pandemic prevention is the priority. The sense we're getting from them is that there's a lot of heartache outside the loop, but it actually has nothing to do with the Olympics. So we're in the middle of Lunar New Year. It's a big holiday. And if you think about when COVID first hit in 2020, it was right around this time, which means this is the third year that people have not been able to go home. So people who don't work in their hometowns, who work somewhere else, count on being able to return home at this time of year.

Some people are able to do it because of their jobs, but restrictions have been really tough on internal travel. So they count on the Lunar New Year. And a lot of them, here we go again, year three, a lot of them cannot do it. Travel is way, way down here. This is the largest annual migration in the world. A billion people are on the move at this time of year, normally. Now it's way lower than that. So they're very upset by that. But whether it's because they were being asked by someone with

a camera or whether this is how they genuinely feel, the response we're getting is like, we understand. There is an enormous amount of pride in terms of this COVID zero policy. People will say to us, it has been really hard, enormous economic impacts. We are emotionally devastated, but we're alive and we're safe and our hospitals aren't overflowing and we haven't lost tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people and we look at what's happening in the west and it's a disaster and we're terrified by the way you have handled covid and all the death we haven't had it here china is still reporting in the neighborhood of 4 600600 deaths, period, from COVID. And you can argue, oh, sure, those numbers aren't right. But there's a good chance that they're not that far off,

given how harsh the response has been to just crush any attempt of COVID to sort of spread. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and

podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Cups. You mentioned earlier in the conversation that you were in Beijing in 2008. I know obviously there was no COVID back then, so of course these games are different. But I do wonder if you feel like there are other differences here. Because I remember in 2008, it was all about China being this, you know, open, more progressive place. And how is it now? Well, I mean, that was the promise, right? That was the good story. That was

the narrative of the era. I mean, I think about those Olympics and, you know, George W. Bush was like fist pumping in the stands of the Bird's Nest Stadium. Heads of state came to China and they, they came with this belief that maybe something was changing. There was this feeling on the part of China, which, you know, at the opening ceremony said to host these games is a century long dream that they wanted to be respected and admired for what they were doing. There was this push to be included and liked, if you will. So on the street, that translated to lots of people saying, what do you think of us? Like, what do you think of China? How are you? Are you enjoying it? Is everything good? There was like such a mixing of people from around the world and people

on the streets. The scalping for tickets was crazy. It was like a mob scene. And the police just sort of gave up and said, you know, we're just not going to do anything about this. There was like a lot of energy. There were plenty of promises about press freedom, but a lot of it was a performance. You know, there were still enormous problems and accusations of human rights abuses, certainly around Tibet, we saw HIV AIDS activists arrested. Dissent wasn't tolerated. Press freedom didn't get any better. But there was at least the outward appearance that maybe this is the turning point for China. Maybe this is the moment when it opens up and gets embraced.

Right. And of course, then leading up to these games, it's been incredibly politically charged. Countries have pulled their diplomats from attending because of allegations of human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PR scene's ongoing genocide. Is that focus still there as you lead into the Games? It's not going away. I mean, there are two things that happen around an Olympics. There is the run-up to the Olympics when, you know, there is no competition, and the conversation is almost entirely around the host city and the host country,

and the anxieties about, you know, COVID in Tokyo, Zika in Rio, the anti-LGBTQ activism in Russia at the time around Sochi. So these conversations happen, and I don't want to trivialize the concerns because I've done seven Olympics and this is certainly the most acute level of concern that I've ever seen. And all of it is warranted. All of it is warranted to have this discussion. away? You know, are people going to stop talking about the allegations about Xinjiang or the crushing of human rights in Hong Kong? They're not. But how are they going to express it? This is where the concern is, because the laws are very murky in China in terms of what can be prosecuted in terms of speech. So it's not just that, you know, will an athlete say something? It's not just that the athlete risks violating Rule 50, which means that on the field of play, they can't be expressing a political or protest opinion. There are places where they can do that,

the mix zone, etc., but not on the podium and not on the field of play. It's not just the IOC's rules they need to worry about. It's very definitely China's rules that they need to worry about. So there's that concern. And noticing something interesting from the Chinese state media is that they're starting to sort of soften the ground a little bit domestically. A number of stories have come out saying, well, they have learned that the Americans have paid athletes to sabotage the games and to maybe throw some of the matches so that the Americans can look stronger, perhaps push, that is the last thing China wants is to be embarrassed or judged harshly for either its COVID zero policy, of which it is enormously proud, regardless of what people say is the, you know, the economic and the human cost of being locked down more severely than anywhere else in the world. But it really doesn't want to be embarrassed with a protest that exposes it in some way. And so I think there's a lot of tension

that I don't think my hunch is it's not going to go away. People are going to wonder what will happen. I know a lot of the athletes are under some strain. You know, just getting here was tough enough. Canadian lusier Justin Smith on his fourth Olympics, passed all COVID protocols, is cleared to compete. It says just getting here, that's its own event. These last couple of weeks have definitely been more stressful

with all the tests and daily health monitoring. And it's just so much extra. But now that we're here and moved into the village, it's definitely a weight lifted off the shoulders for sure. It was like this terrible game of dodgeball and COVID is the dodgeball and it's being thrown at your head and you're deking and you're trying to get out of the way just to get to the Olympics. And then everyone tells them, you know, you got to be careful about your social media and you got to be careful what you say on the phone and how you compete.

And oh, by the way, your parents can't be here and neither can your friends and family. I mean, it's a lot. I can't imagine how difficult this has been for them. These years of uncertainty and stopping and starting training, I'm sure it's been such a tough journey for them to get there. Adrienne, when we talked in the summer, you talked about some of the athletes that we should be watching out for. And I wonder if you might do the same today. Oh, absolutely. So the pandemic has just meant it's like too hard to gauge how the athletes

are going to perform compared to the competition, because a lot of competition has been cancelled. There's a lot we don't know. Look at the ice, for example, at speed skating. Canadians like the ice when it's really hard and really fast. It might be a little bit softer here. So maybe that changes something. What about the artificial snow in the mountains? What's that going to do? So we don't know the story of performance, but we do know the story of these athletes. You've got Charles Amelin, his fifth Olympics, if you can imagine. Fifth Olympics in short track speed skating.

The curler, Brad Gougeau, listen, he won gold in Torino in 2006. There is a highway named after him in Newfoundland. What if he wins again? You know, this is a really big deal. Snowboarding, if you step back, Seb Dutton, Max Perrault, Mark McMorris, they could all end up on the podium. They have come through so much, Max Perrault, in particular, after a cancer diagnosis. You've got the first-timers, right? So this is a big team, kind of sent a huge team. 45 of the 215 are people who have won medals before. They are repeat performers.

And then you have people like J.J. Hawker. So at 12, she wrote a letter to herself talking about dreaming of competing in the Olympics, saying, but, you know, I don't think it will happen. So, you know, J.J., you did it. It did happen. You're here. So this is what we are waiting to find out. We're never going to forget where we are. The story of China. That doesn't get cast aside. That is just part of the texture of this moment. But we're also not going to ignore the athletes. Adrienne, thank you so much for this. I cannot wait to watch the snowboarding. It's what I'm most looking forward to. Thank you. Thank you. You bet. All right. That is all for today. Thank you so much

for listening. If you are a fan of this show, we would love it if you took the time to rate and review us. It helps other people find us. Talk to you tomorrow.