Tangle - Biden boycotts the Olympics.

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

Yesterday, the Biden administration confirmed that it will not be sending the president or any other official U.S. government delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. The move is designed as a protest against China's ongoing human rights abuses, and is a notable snub given the Chinese government’s hopes to use the Olympics to enhance its public standing. But the boycott by officials will not affect the ability of any U.S. athletes to participate in the games.You can read today's newsletter here.It's the holiday season, and there are worst gifts than the gift of knowledge.Want to open new political doors to a friend or family member? Give a gift subscription to Tangle.Want to give a gift to us, the Tangle team? Become a subscriber.Want to give a more tangible gift — like a mug, hoodie, sticker, or new item of clothing? You can check out our merchandise store.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our newsletter is written by Isaac Saul, edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.The podcast is edited by Trevor Eichhorn, and music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I am your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we are going to be discussing the Olympic boycott, the diplomatic Olympic boycott announced by the Biden administration yesterday. As always, though, before we jump in, we'll start with some quick hits.

First up, California Congressman Devin Nunez is leaving Congress to become the CEO of a new Trump media company. Number two, the Justice Department is suing Texas over its new redistricting plan, saying it discriminates against Latino and black voters. Number three, three more of the 17 American and Canadian missionaries abducted by a Haitian gang have been released. Twelve are still being held. Number four, President Biden announced the United States strategy on countering corruption, an effort to ramp up anti-corruption investigations and partner with anti-money laundering regimes in other countries. Number five, President Biden will hold a call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin today and plans to warn Putin about repercussions for a potential invasion of Ukraine. Before we jump into today's main topic, I also want to give you a brief update about the podcast.

A number of readers and listeners have written in asking when or if we're going to revive the interview podcast, which a lot of people loved. And the answer is soon, as in like potentially this week soon. We've already got a few guests on the books before the end of the year, and we're scheduling some more for early January as we speak. So as we head into 2022, I want to lay the groundwork to be doing at least a few interviews a month on the podcast and, of course, for the newsletter. But I also want to hear from you guys. Who do you want to hear on the podcast? If you'd like, you can write to me, Isaac, I-S-A-A-C, at readtangle.com with some suggestions about who you want to hear us interview, and I'll see if I can get them on the books.

We are less than three months until the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. And as we mentioned earlier, the White House today announced a diplomatic boycott as tensions with the repressive communist country escalate. The White House just announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Games in China. Again, this is a diplomatic boycott, not a full boycott. The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. Yesterday, the Biden administration confirmed that it will not be sending the

president or any other U.S. government officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. The move is designed as a protest against China's ongoing human rights abuses and is a notable snub given the Chinese government's hopes to use the Olympics to enhance its public standing. But the boycott by officials will not affect the ability of any U.S. athletes to participate in the Games. In March, the U.S. declared China's treatment of the Uyghur Muslims a genocide, and it has criticized the Chinese Communist Party for detaining pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. More recently, China has faced criticism for disappearing tennis star Peng Shuai, who accused a former government

official of sexual assault before falling out of public view. Shuai has appeared in two video conferences with the International Olympic Committee, giving assurances of her well-being, though that did little to comfort China's critics. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have called for the Biden administration to take a stand, though some, including Senator Tom Cotton, wanted to go further and pull all U.S. athletes out of the games. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of China's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can't do that. The athletes on Team USA have our full support.

We will be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home." The federal government itself cannot make the decision to pull athletes from the Games. That choice is left up to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Boycotting is not unprecedented either. In 1980, the U.S. Olympic Committee withdrew its athletes from the Summer Olympics in Moscow shortly after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. China's foreign ministry spokesman expressed outrage at the move. U.S. politicians keep hyping a diplomatic boycott without even being invited to the games.

This wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation, he said. It is a grave travesty to the spirit of the Olympic Charter, a blatant political provocation, and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people. Below, we'll take a look at some perspectives about the decision. We're including opinions from the right and the left, as well as opinions from a Uyghur Muslim advocate and a Chinese state news outlet. First up, we'll start with what the right is saying. So the right has mostly argued that the diplomatic boycott does not go far enough. It has also called out major corporations for sponsoring the games, and many wish the athletes would take a stand against

participating. In the New York Post, Rich Lowry said it should be a rule of thumb that the Olympic Games shouldn't be held in countries that operate concentration camps. If this strikes you as an unreasonable demand, you aren't suited to serve on the International Olympic Committee. The IOC has doggedly defended Beijing as host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, even as the Chinese Communist Party pursues its campaign of unrelenting barbarity against the Uyghurs, Lowry wrote. The Biden administration just announced a so-called diplomatic boycott of the games, a gesture of disapproval that won't dent the propaganda coup the IOC is handing the most

dangerous regime in the world. The IOC is the World Health Organization of sports organizations. When China disappeared Peng Shuai, the female tennis star, for the offense of making an accusation of sexual assault against a former high government official, the IOC happily assisted in the regime's crisis PR, lest the shocking incident derail the games. China has the great good fortune to deal with international organizations, except the Women's Tennis Association, which is suspending tournaments in China, that lack all self-respect. The IOC is following in the well-trod footsteps of corporations, financiers, and sports leagues that start out wanting to do business with China

and end up complicit in the regime's crimes by staying silent or explaining them away. In the National Review, Jimmy Quinn said the boycott highlights a corporate capitulation to China. There's ample reason to question whether the Biden administration has gone far enough to push back against what's sure to be a Chinese Communist Party propaganda event and to ensure that U.S. athletes and journalists are not subjected to Beijing's hostage diplomacy tactics. This is a debate that'll play out for the next three months, but what's most immediately obvious is where this leaves corporate sponsors of the 2022 Games. Intel, Visa, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, P&G, and others are bankrolling an event that party officials are using to bolster their international legitimacy

and deflect from the ongoing mass atrocities they're perpetuating in China. Now, these Beijing 2022 sponsors are also sponsoring an event that's being boycotted by the U.S. government over the PRC's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. The executives atop these companies are going out of their way to deflect criticism of the party's atrocities, whether they do so explicitly or not. They're sticking with the games, even though the U.S. government is staying home. All right, so that's it for the right's take, and this is what the left is saying. Most are satisfied with the diplomatic boycott, though some have called for an athlete boycott, too. Many on the left believe Biden is sending the right message and doing what he can, and while they support Biden's move, they also want to continue to pressure China on human rights issues.

In USA Today, Nancy Armour said it was the right decision. Finally, somebody has the guts to stand up to China and its propaganda fest, Armour wrote. By announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics on Monday, the United States is casting an inescapable shadow over what President Xi Jinping planned as a celebration of China's wealth, power, and status as a global heavyweight. No matter how spectacular the opening ceremony is, how flawlessly the games are staged, or how many medals the host country wins, there will be a yes but attached to everything. The U.S. repudiation of China's long litany of human rights abuses will remain front and center for the duration of the Games, and there's not a damn thing Xi, Beijing organizers, or even the International Olympic Committee can do about it.

With the IOC a willing accomplice to China's many misdeeds, some have called for an athlete boycott, but that's not the answer. Athletes have spent most of their lives training for an Olympics, and for many, they will get only one shot. It is not fair to expect them to speak out or to stay home when people in actual positions of power display no such moral courage. However, some on the left also have said they want to see an athlete boycott. In the Boston Globe, Brian Alexander wrote the case for one. On February 4th, China, the International Olympic Committee, and NBC will open the Winter Olympics while trying to pretend China is not operating concentration camps that imprison members of the Uyghur ethnic minority, subjecting some to forced sterilization, has not

wrecked civil liberties in Hong Kong, and has not silenced one of its own star athletes, tennis player Peng Shuai, after she accused a top Chinese government official of sexual assault. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. China, the IOC, NBC will do all this pretending for you, Olympians. Not for your benefit, mind you, but because they need you. They need you to show up.

NBCUniversal paid $7.5 billion to the IOC for the rights to broadcast the Olympics from 2022 through 2032. The network has reportedly sold out the ad space, and IOC partners like Coca-Cola, Toyota, Visa, Bridgestone, and Procter & Gamble want your gauzy stories to sell their products. China, of course, wants a huge public relations boost. But none of this can happen without you. You are the meat in the grinder of a giant entertainment industrial complex. Without you, there wouldn't be much of a US TV audience to justify all that money. So if you were to begin feeling a little uncomfortable skiing, skating, or curling on the backs of innocent people in prison for the crime of being who they are,

and you decided not to go, you could force the IOC to stop abetting the trampling of human rights. All right, that's it for the left's take, which brings us to some views from China. So first up, we're going to do something a little unusual. And just in the interest of fairness, I'm going to share something from China Daily, which is an English newspaper owned by the publicity department of the Chinese government. So it's a state-owned newspaper, which called the boycott politically driven. Washington's latest attempt to politicize the forthcoming global sports event runs counter to the Olympic spirit that intends to unite rather than divide. This blatant political provocation will also risk damaging Sino-U.S. relations, one of the world's most important bilateral relationships that stands at a crucial crossroads.

relationships that stands at a crucial crossroads. Given that no U.S. officials had been invited to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, the so-called diplomatic boycott is no more than a self-invented and politically convenient excuse for Washington. Such a move based on lies and political hostility will not stand in the way of the Olympic Games, but only be remembered as a move by some politicians who put their self-interest before the pursuit of peace and unity of humanity. In June, Rehan Assad, an advocate for Uyghurs in China, said that we should move the games or stage a diplomatic boycott. I cheered China on from Wuhan in 2008 when Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics, Assad said. Thirteen years later, I'm advocating for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be relocated from Beijing and for a diplomatic boycott if that option fails. My position shifted drastically because China, a country I hoped would

move in a more democratic direction, instead has reached new levels of cruelty. My worst fears were realized in the spring of 2016 when my brother, a prominent tech entrepreneur, disappeared after returning from a U.S. State Department exchange program. In January 2019, he was transferred from a concentration camp to the Aksu prison camp. The International Olympic Committee postponed last year's Summer Olympics because of COVID, Assad wrote. Why can't it delay or move next year's games instead of holding them in a country that is locking up millions of people in camps where torture, forced sterilization, rape, and starvation are the norm? camps where torture, forced sterilization, rape, and starvation are the norm. All right, so those are some takes from the right and the left, and a couple thoughts from some writers who were based or are based in China, and this is my take. So in an ideal world,

the Olympics would have been moved from Beijing months or years ago. I mean, we had the time to do this. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world, so we're left with two options, one which is essentially a half measure and the other which would do just as much damage or harm to U.S. athletes as it would to the Chinese government. In March, I interviewed Minky Worden about what was happening in China and why an Olympic boycott was necessary. In August, I wrote about the cold reality of what China was doing to the Uyghurs. The Chinese propaganda machine can frame Biden's diplomatic boycott as politically divisive and against the spirit of the games as much as they want, but what's actually divisive is imprisoning, torturing, and sterilizing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. That horrific campaign is

the work of President Xi, something recent leaks have only confirmed. I'm not sure how many more survivors or photographic evidence or government leaks or whistleblowers we need to accept the accuracy of reporting on what's happening. Without the IOC's support, though, and with little recourse once corporate sponsors refused to pull out, Biden was truly playing a bad hand, and he played it perfectly fine as well as he could have. A diplomatic boycott brings attention to the issue, creates headlines about what is happening, and ensures the U.S. officials won't be seen hobnobbing with a government that is doing what Xi's government is doing. As for the athletes, I'm sympathetic

to their position. The athlete in me, of course, wants to believe that the best course of action would be to show up and whoop some ass, but it's unavoidable that any athletes who go there will be leveraged as actors in the concocted play of the CCP's making. Ultimately, the athletes should be able to choose on their own, and while I'd respect the chutzpah to stay home, I won't blame anyone for refusing to give up a lifelong dream, especially when the real power centers behind the games had every opportunity to do something over the last couple of years but chose not to. All right, that's it for our main topic today, which brings us to a reader question. This one's from an anonymous reader in Los Angeles who said,

What are your thoughts on whether America is headed on the right track versus the wrong track in the next few decades? I was in a debate with a friend around whether or not we are yet in another best of times, worst of times moment, or whether some of the macro long-term trends are really pointing towards a unique moment in time for a darkening future for America. This is a good question. It's definitely a big one, probably not one I can adequately answer here, but I'll just say, I mean, I'm an optimist. I think it's nearly impossible to say broadly whether America is on the right or wrong track, but I do think there's cause for hope, mostly because of where we were before the pandemic, an event that had catastrophic impacts,

not just on the U.S., but basically on every country on earth. Before coronavirus, I think it was pretty safe to say we were trending in the right direction. I mean, compared to 20 years ago, Americans were in many ways better off economically. Even compared to the first decade of the 21st century, poverty was falling, fewer people were homeless, child mortality rates declined, personal income was up, cancer death rates were falling, violent crime was falling, youth illiteracy was falling, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were down, and the criminal justice system by most measures was becoming more just. And in 2020, however you want to frame it or why ever it happened, more people were participating in the political process than we've had in decades, which to me is a good thing.

Much of this progress has been upended, reversed, or slowed because of the pandemic, so I think it'll take another decade before it's clear whether we can rebound from that, but I also think the pandemic could result in more power for the working class, more autonomy for all workers, and a long-term migration of wealth and jobs from the inner cities back to suburbia, smaller towns, rural areas, which I think would be good. Again, though, we'll see. Obviously, none of this is to downplay the major threats that are out there. Polarization, censoriousness, and the degradation of Congress continues on a daily basis.

We write about it here a lot. Our freedom scores are falling compared to other nations across the globe, and wealth inequality is getting worse. A majority of Republicans still don't accept the results of the 2020 election, while Americans are increasingly disillusioned with the institutions we rely on for societal order. Many on the left and right are pining for class warfare, while social media echo chambers are radicalizing our most influential pundits and politicians. All of that is truly concerning, and I definitely don't want to downplay it, but I still think there's a lot to be hopeful about. However you cut it, the next few years will be critical in shaping the arc of the country for the decades to come.

All right, that brings us to our story that matters. Democrats are tired of waiting for Joe Manchin. That is the lead from a new story in Politico about the murmurs in Congress where Democrats may put their $1.7 trillion social spending and climate bill to a vote, whether Manchin is openly supporting it or not. Increasingly, Senate Democrats want to put the bill up, forcing centrist Democrats like Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to take a tough vote either with or against the party. If the feeling gains momentum, it could mean one of the most sweeping bills in U.S. history will go up for a vote before the holiday break, potentially reshaping education, climate change

efforts, and the social safety net heading into 2022. Politico has that story and there's a link in today's newsletter. All right, that brings us to our numbers section. $34.7 billion is the amount of sales revenue Toyota and Olympic sponsor received from China in 2020. $3.3 billion is the amount of revenue Coca-Cola and Olympic sponsor received from China in 2020. And $34 million is the amount of revenue Airbnb and Olympic sponsor received from China in 2020, and $34 million is the amount of revenue Airbnb and Olympic sponsor received from China in 2020. 49% is the percentage of Americans who said China's human rights violations should prevent it from hosting the Olympics, according to an August poll in Axios. 14% was the percentage who said China's human rights violations should not prevent it from hosting the Olympics, and 33% of Americans said

they didn't know. Finally, our have a nice day story before we let you go. I don't even know how I came across this one on the internet, but I clicked something. Basically, it's never too late to learn. I don't know what else to say about Kutiyama, a 104-year-old woman who just learned how to read and write. Kutiyama lives in the southern Indian state of Kerala and is known for being incredibly active at her age, but she had said she always wanted to tackle one other goal, becoming literate. After watching her great-grandchildren learn to read and write, she got inspired, and a volunteer teacher began tutoring her every day and night. Recently, she scored 89 out of 100 on a literacy exam that tested her ability. The Good News Hub has the story,

which you can find in today's newsletter. All right, everybody, that is it for the podcast. As always, if you want to support us, go to the episode description and click readtangle.com backslash membership where you can subscribe. Also, just spread the word. Give us a five-star rating. Share the podcast with your friends. All that stuff helps. It's huge. We appreciate it. And we'll see you tomorrow. Our newsletter is written by isaac saul edited by bailey saul sean brady ari weitzman and produced in conjunction with tangle's social media manager magdalena bakova who also helped create our logo the podcast is edited by trevor eichhorn and music for the podcast was produced by diet 75 for more from tangle subscribe to our newsletter or check out our content archives at www.readtangle.com. We'll see you next time. who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime,

Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.