The International Olympic Committee is again taking appropriate steps to discipline Belarus. That’s perfectly appropriate, but the move also exposes the panel’s hypocrisy when it comes to China.
After criticizing her coaches, Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was told that it was not safe for her to return to her country. She ended up at the Polish Embassy, and two of the coaches who tried to put her on a plane back to Belarus have been stripped of their credentials by the IOC pending an investigation.
IOC President Thomas Bach wants to maintain his excuse for inaction on China: that the committee avoids politics. He says the IOC is “not in a position to change the political system in a country.” But that hasn’t stopped the IOC from handing down sanctions for Belarus before, and it again exposes just how egregious the committee’s pandering to China is.
Recall that the IOC still censors Taiwan at the Olympics, forcing the country to compete under a made-up flag with an alternate national anthem as “Chinese Taipei.” The IOC had previously suspended Belarus from being able to host IOC events, but the genocidal regime in China remains free to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
How the IOC is handling Belarus is how it should be handling China. But China has repeatedly promised to give in to the committee’s extravagant demands. It doesn’t matter to the IOC how many Uyghurs end up in concentration camps so long as China treats them like kings and brings home the money.
