December 14, 2021

China Uncovered

We are excited to announce the second season of the China Uncovered podcast is now available on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. In this podcast, Heritage Senior Policy Analyst Olivia Enos hosts representatives of world-class data projects to discuss how their projects are shining a spotlight on the Chinese Communist Party’s actions and emerging trends from their data.

On December 6, we released our sixth episode: Tracking the CCP's Efforts to Undermine Democracy featuring Etienne Soula. Stay tuned for our season finale on December 20!

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Four Ways to Hold Beijing Accountable During the Beijing Winter Olympics

The Biden administration has finally announced it will diplomatically boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Heritage Senior Policy Analyst Olivia Enos writes that unilateral boycott was literally the least they could do. And coming, as it did, after long months of indecision, it looks more like a face-saving measure than moral leadership. It was the bare minimum.

That said, it's not over yet.

A diplomatic boycott ensures that U.S. government officials do not tacitly condone these activities, while still ensuring American athletes’ safe participation. But still more can be done to hold Beijing accountable during the Winter Games—and it doesn’t need to be done solely by the U.S. government:

1. Multilateralize the diplomatic boycott. The U.S. is being mocked by Beijing because its diplomatic boycott is relatively isolated. It is imperative that Washington generate broad-based support. Creating a broad diplomatic coalition, even at this late date, will help show Beijing who is on the right side of history. On the other hand, going it alone, or nearly alone, will leave Washington with the diplomatic version of Carter’s 1980 Olympic boycott debacle.
2. American athletes can raise their voices in solidarity with the Chinese people. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and many famous tennis players like Serena Williams have publicly called on the CCP to release Peng Shuai after she was held hostage by Beijing. The WTA’s actions stood in sharp contrast to the complicity of the International Olympic Committee, which sought to safeguard the Olympics at all costs.
3. Journalists should increase coverage of China’s abuses. Journalists who travel to China to cover the Olympics have a duty to speak up for the Chinese people whose rights are being violated by their own government. Coverage of atrocities in Xinjiang, human rights violations in Tibet and restrictions on freedom of speech, religion, and assembly should be front and center.
4. Businesses can pull sponsorship as a form of protest. The business community should weigh carefully any decisions to grant credence to the CCP’s propaganda during the Games and consider the reputational risks of doing so. At root, the Games are a money-making venture for the host. American companies who participate in The Olympic Partner Programme (TOP), like Coca Cola, Airbnb ABNB +1.4%, Visa, and Procter and Gamble PG -0.3%, can make the Olympics less profitable for the IOC and for Beijing by pulling their sponsorship of the Games. Olympic sponsors pay billions of dollars to the IOC to be associated with the Olympics brand. The TOP funding pays for the broadcasting operations of the host country, among other expenses. Furthermore, NBC should consider whether to air the Opening Ceremonies—which, if the 2008 Olympics were any indicator—ended up being a propaganda vehicle for the CCP. Businesses, including broadcasters, should not stand by as Beijing undermines human rights and security.

The administration missed an opportunity. It had become politically unfeasible for U.S. government representatives to attend the Olympic Games. By the time a decision was made, it was simply a recognition of reality. To make any difference at this point, the boycott must be followed up with an effort to make the CCP feel the heat from the international community in the lead-up to and during the Games.

Joe Biden's Global Posture Review Was a Nothingburger

Last month, the Biden administration released its Global Posture Review, billed as an assessment of how the U.S. should “best allocate military forces in pursuit of national interests.”

Unfortunately, “released” is an overstatement. Heritage Senior Research Fellow Dakota Wood writes that what the Administration provided was a 500-word overview of the review’s general conclusions rather than the review itself. Bluntly stated, this was largely a review of reviews that recommended more reviews. Hardly reassuring.

As would be expected, the review emphasized the importance of allies and improving the abilities of good guys to deter the troublesome behavior of bad guys. But it offered no specifics on any substantive change to U.S. capabilities or capacity for military operations. In fact, the review largely concluded that the U.S. force posture is just right.

Despite the modesty of its contents, the overview was released with great fanfare. But the community that tracks such things was disheartened if not outright dismayed.

The Biden administration is facing a quickly deteriorating global situation, with potential crises on the near horizon. Russia is reportedly poised to mobilize upwards of 175,000 troops for an invasion of Ukraine. That incursion may not proceed, but at the very least President Vladimir Putin is flexing his military muscle in this way to shape Western political calculations.

Meanwhile, China has been aggressively probing the air and sea spaces surrounding Taiwan, sending a clear message that it is irrevocably committed to bringing Taiwan under Beijing’s control sooner rather than later. And the Biden team seems quite desperate to secure any sort of agreement with Iran in its quest to resurrect the deeply flawed Iranian nuclear deal.

As published, the Global Posture Review is the quintessential nothingburger. The nation not only deserves better, it must have better. Here’s hoping the National Defense Strategy calls urgently for something more than action to combat climate change. As the world’s largest carbon emitter, China doesn’t give a hoot about such, and one suspects Putin, the mullahs in Tehran, and the Kim regime don’t much care either. They are far more focused on expanding and modernizing their militaries and destabilizing the regions they wish to bring firmly under their control.

What the U.S. actually needs from the president and his defense secretary are real-world, no-holds-barred assessments of what it would take to deter potential enemies and defeat them if necessary. The American public deserves a full and honest report about where we stand in that regard. Anything less is an abrogation of the most profound responsibilities laid upon those high offices.