In 1936, Berlin hosted the summer Olympics and Adolf Hitler used the games as a propaganda platform to legitimize the Nazi Party and soften his own image at home and abroad. The world cannot afford to give the Communist Party of China a second chance to do similar in 2022, when Beijing is due to host the winter games, having already used the 2008 summer Olympiad for political gain.

In the years before the 1936 games, Hitler had turned Germany into a one-party dictatorship, he had police round up his political opponents and began his persecution of Jewish people. There were concerns from Olympic officials, but it was hoped the games would help Germany move towards freedom and would signal a return to the international fold for the nation after World War I. There was a boycott movement, but once this narrowly failed, 49 nations competed and the games were credited with cultivating a kinder and more acceptable image for the Nazi party.

To reduce controversy and placate critics, anti-Jewish signs were temporarily removed, and harsh rhetoric was toned down from officials and in state-controlled media as Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels presented the games as a “festival of joy and peace.” Privately, however, after the success of black athlete Jesse Owens, Goebbels wrote in his diary that “white humanity should be ashamed.”

The IOC’s controversial choice of Beijing for the 2008 games was made with similar rationale as the Berlin selection.

As IOC member Dick Pound wrote in his book “Inside the Olympics”, “The decision to give the 2008 games to China was made in the hope of improvement in human rights and, indeed, the Chinese themselves said that having the games would accelerate progress in such matters.”

The lead-up to the 2008 games brought the same type of “smile-for-the-cameras” political playacting by CCP officials. Factories were shut down to ensure blue skies, dissidents silenced, foreign journalists were restricted access and state media were drilled on which propaganda lines to use.

The build-up was not without protest though, and the media attention sparked discussion about human rights – particularly in Tibet – but within China, the games provided a popularity boost for the CCP.

Not only did the 2008 Olympics not foster better human rights or democratic reform, if anything, hosting the games stoked a nationalism that enabled the creation of the neo-fascist state that China is today.

There are alarming similarities in China under Xi Jinping and Germany pre-World War II, including a dictator with no term limit embarking on genocide, bans on religion and the arbitrary incarceration of political enemies. Ominously, there is also aggressive foreign policy resulting in conflict and crackdowns in its border regions.

There are 500 days until the 2022 winter games are scheduled to start in Beijing and there is still time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act.

The IOC has previously banned nations from competing before for human rights violations, including Germany after both WWI and II. South Africa was banned from competing for nearly four decades because of apartheid. Afghanistan was banned in 2000 due to its discrimination against women under Taliban rule and prohibition of sport.

The IOC has never stripped a country of hosting rights, although prior to the 1988 summer games in Seoul, South Korea was pressured into democratic reforms.

Stripping China of the winter games might actually be doing the CCP a favour, as it is hard to imagine how an increasingly intolerant regime could handle the scrutiny, criticisms and media discourse the games would bring.

Vladimir Putin’s attempts to turn the 2014 winter games in Sochi into a propaganda tool may have given his popularity a short term boost at home, but the games also put the media spotlight on his homophobic policies, among other troubling issues, and the press ultimately uncovered a state-sponsored doping program.

Article 48 of the IOC’s charter calls for “all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media …”, a promise that was broken by Beijing in the lead-up to the 2008 games, but one that seems impossible to fulfil on any level in 2022 given the CCP is expelling accredited journalists and denying visas at an alarming rate.

International relations with China are at a low point and trending worse. Many foreign governments warn citizens of the risks of arbitrary detention when travelling in China and the lack of a proper legal system, so how can countries justify sending athletes and officials there?

If the 2022 games did go ahead it could turn into a nightmare for China from an international relations perspective, but the great risk of allowing them going ahead is that it not only approves of widespread human rights violations, but it could – just as the games did in 2008 – further enable a regime with a vision of control that extends beyond its borders.

(Michael Cox is a journalist and Hong Kong permanent resident currently based in Australia. He has previously written for the South China Morning Post, The Age (Melbourne) and Australian Associated Press.)

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