Mirroring the ultra-liberal news division of NBC News, 55-year-old Beijing Winter Olympics host Mike Tirico went over the top commenting before the opening ceremony about China’s “genocide” of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang Provicne, Western China. Tirico knows the Olympic Charter requires the games to be apolitical, simply bringing the world best athletes in their sports for a friendly competition for gold, silver and bronze metals. Even for most 2,900 athletes that don’t receive medals, the spirit of the Olympic Winter and Summer Games does everything possible to avoid the fray of global politics. “Everything and everyone attached to these Games is facing questions,” Tirico said from the Comcast-owned CMCSA studio. Tirico pointed out the United States government boycotted the Beijing Winter Games precisely because of the “genocide” of Muslim Uyghurs.
Tirico stepped into the political trap largely to give the host country, Communist China, a black eye on the world stage. “The United States government is not here, a diplomatic boycott announced this fall joined by Canada, Great Britain and Australia citing China’s human rights record and the U.S. government’s declaration that the Chinese Communist Party is guilty of committing genocide on the Uyghur Muslim population in the western Xinjiang region,” Tirico said the night before the Opening Ceremony. Embarrassing China, Tirico went over the top politicizing the Games, something most viewers would prefer to avoid. Whatever the real facts of what goes on in China, liberal NBC News should not use the Winter Olympics to register complaints about the host country. Nothing could be ruder or more boorish than Tirico using his NBC microphone to slam China.
China was gracious enough to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, spending billions in preparation for the wide span of winter sports competitions. Tirico mentioned that President Joe Biden, 79, approved a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing games, protesting many U.S.-labeled human rights abuses in China, including the “genocide” of Muslim Uyghurs, crack down on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and harassment of Taiwan. But whatever the beef Biden has with Beijing, it’s counterproductive boycotting the Games. Using China’s Winter Games to launch human rights protests violates everyone known principle of Olympic competition. Whatever the feud with China, Biden should have kept it out of the Winter Olympics. Boycotting the Games was the ultimate slap to 68-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping who happily invited Russian President Vladimir Putin for VIP treatment.
Tirico followed a script given to him by Comcast/NBC Universal to defend Biden’s indefensible actions of boycotting the Beijing Winter Games. “The U.S. estimates more than 1 million member of the Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups have been detained, abused and subjected to forced labor at internment camps,” Tirico said, making a mockery of his job to host the Winter Games. Tirico could have told his NBC handlers that he would not use the airwaves to make political statements. Instead, Tirico looked like he relished the opportunity to make political statements at Winter Olympics. Playing right into Biden’s feud with Xi Jinping hurt NBC’s credibility, sucking the Olympics into an international dispute. Since taking office Jan. 20, 2021, Biden’s been ripping China for a raft of human rights violations, all designed to make China look bad on the world stage.
Exploiting the Beijing Winter Olympics to score political points against China backfired on Biden, watching Putin receive VIP treatment. But more that lavishing Putin with attention, Biden watched Putin negotiate a $16 billion energy deal with China into the indefinite future, all because Biden had to demonize China for its so-called human rights abuses. When 59-year-old U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security adviser Jake Sullivan met for a summit in Anchorage, Alaska March 18, 2021, they did nothing but slam China for human rights abuse. When 71-year-old senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi responded that no country that admits to “systemic racism” against African Americans should lecture anyone on human rights, it didn’t go over well. So Biden used human rights to alienate China, it left U.S.-Chinese relations in shambles, opening the door for Russia.
Biden has made a mess of U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese relations, pushing both communist superpowers into a strategic and military alliance against the United States. Boycotting the Beijing Games backfired on Biden because most countries know that the Olympics should not be used for political purposes. “The Games should not be used as a distraction from China’s appalling human-rights record,” said London-based Amnesty International. “On the contrary, they should be an opportunity to press China to address these issues,” showing the most outrageous blindness to the true spirit of the Olympic Games. Biden fell into the trap of politicizing the Beijing Olympics, ultimately making the U.S. look petty and vindictive. Letting Tirico slam China before the Opening Ceremony was truly egregious.
