Saudi Arabia, China accused of using sport to cover up human rights abuses
Students from the Youth Olympic Winter Sports School perform ice and snow gymnastics during an event to mark the countdown to the 100 days to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Zhangjiakou, Saskatchewan. Hebei Province, China, Tuesday. // Costfoto / Barcroft Media / Getty Images, Chen Xiaodong
What do China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have in common? The answer may not be as obvious as you think. But all three countries are accused of human rights violations, and all three also host some of the world’s largest and most lucrative sporting events.
China is hosting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Qatar is hosting the FIFA World Cup next year, and Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in hosting large-scale international sporting events.
But human rights organizations and others have expressed concern that behind this seemingly innocuous trend lies a concerted effort by these countries and others to use sport as a way to cover up their bads. human rights outcomes.
“They are increasingly using and seeing sport as an opportunity to whitewash their image,†Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK’s campaign manager, told NPR.
The human rights group even uses a recent term to describe the practice: “sports washing”.
“It is the process by which a country or a regime with a particularly poor human rights record uses sport as a means of creating positive headlines, a positive image of their country,” Jakens explained.
Saudi Arabia embarks on English football and Formula 1 racing
Last month, the rights group criticized Saudi Arabia’s takeover of English Premier League club Newcastle United. According to press reports, the Saudi government-owned Public Investment Fund bought an 80% stake in the English football club for 300 million pounds ($ 400 million).
“Since this deal was first brought up, we have said that it represents a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to whitewash their appalling human rights record with the glamor of top football,” said the CEO. Amnesty International UK, Sacha Deshmukh, in a statement.
The takeover of Newcastle United is just the latest sports-related investment by Saudi authorities. In recent years, the kingdom has spent more than $ 1.5 billion to host elite sporting events, according to a report by Grant Liberty. This includes the organization of the annual Spanish Super Cup football match, international men’s and women’s golf tournaments and professional wrestling, among others.
Next month, the Formula 1 world racing series will host its race in Saudi Arabia for the first time. The Grand Prix event will take place on December 5 on a brand new circuit in the port city of Jiddah. F1 – which is owned by the American company Liberty Media Corp. – signed a 10-year deal with the kingdom worth $ 650 million.
The Saudi F1 event will also feature a number of musical performances. Pop star Justin Bieber, who heads the off-piste entertainment program, faces increasing calls to cancel his show.
In an open letter published by The Washington Post, Hatice Cengiz – the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi – urged the Canadian singer to “send a powerful message to the world that your name and talent will not be used to restore the reputation of a regime that kills its critics.”
The kingdom says it is reforming
Saudi government rejects all accusations of sports washing. Fahad Nazer, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said the investments were part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to diversify the country’s economy, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas.
“The idea that the transformational reforms currently underway in the kingdom are just an attempt to improve the image of the kingdom is largely flawed,†Nazer told NPR.
He said the country aims to establish a sports industry as part of its Vision 2030 plan, which calls not only for a more diverse economy, but also a vibrant society.
But the 2018 murder of journalist Khashoggi, the imprisonment of human rights activists and the ongoing bombing campaign in Yemen have cast doubt on the real transformation of these reforms.
Although he ushered in new limited freedoms for Saudi citizens, the crown prince made the country more autocratic than before, said Daniel Byman, senior researcher at the Brookings Institution.
“There are more freedoms for women, just to take a very important example. But there is less tolerance, even for limited political dissent, â€he said.
A Formula 1 spokesperson, who has been accused of allowing sports washing in the past, did not directly respond to whether the series took into account a country’s rights record of the man in his decision to organize a race there.
“We take our rights responsibilities very seriously and set high ethical standards for counterparties and those in our supply chain, which are written into contracts, and we pay close attention to their observance,” said the spokesperson.
Last weekend, F1 made its debut in Qatar, another country with a less than stellar track record. Seven-time world champion and race winner Lewis Hamilton raised the issue of human rights and equality at a press conference ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix.
“As sports go to these places, they have a duty to raise awareness about these issues. These places need to be looked at closely. Equal rights are a serious issue,” said the British pilot, who wore a helmet. race in the colors of the rainbow during a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ + community.
China facing the boycott of the Olympics
China has also been accused of using sports to polish its public image. A few months away from the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Biden administration is considering a diplomatic boycott of the Games due to the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims living in the Xinjiang region.
The issue of sports washing has even reached the halls of Congress. Last year, Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida introduced a resolution calling on the International Olympic Committee to strip China of its Olympic hosting rights.
“I do not believe that a country which commits genocide against its own citizens, which builds an army to rule the world, which steals jobs and technologies all over the world, denies the basic rights of its own citizens should organize Olympics, â€Scott told NPR in a recent interview.
China has repeatedly denied accusations of human rights violations in Xinjiang.
He further criticized US Olympic broadcast partner NBC and Olympic sponsors for not speaking out further on alleged human rights violations in China.
His Democratic colleague Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon argues that sports leagues need to take more responsibility for rights. He says they “sell off their integrity for profit”, effectively helping to rehabilitate the reputations of human rights abusers.
The use of sport for spin goes back a long way
The practice of countries using sport as a smokescreen is not new. Many countries, including Britain, saw sport as a way to distract from oppression in colonial times. Nazi Germany used the 1936 Berlin Olympics as an opportunity to show off its so-called racial superiority, and during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union used sport as a soft power.
But the word sportswashing came into use later. According to one testimony, according to British sports journalist Sam Cunningham, the term appeared in 2015 when Azerbaijan hosted the European Games, and Amnesty International brought it back to the fore a few years later.
Whatever the origins, it is not known whether sports washing can have a lasting effect. But according to Simon Chadwick, sports industry expert at Emlyon Business School in France, it may provide temporary relief.
“If we look at the 2018 World Cup, there has been a lot of criticism against Russia,†he said. “But what we saw when people came back from the Russian World Cup is that now their view of Russia has changed a lot, they have seen the country in a much more positive way.”
As Western democracies increasingly scrutinize the value of hosting large-scale sporting events, he believes countries with questionable human rights records will continue to use sport to bolster their public image.
“What we will see is that Saudi Arabia, China and others continue to bid for these events, are granted the right to organize them, and then let the West face the kind of moral and ideological fallout. that we have as a result of their hosting, â€says Chadwick.
Most sports organizations defend their decision to host events in these countries by claiming to be a catalyst for change. But this change has not yet materialized.
