Cotton knots; Olympic rows; Wolf Warrior Winner
Hello, and welcome to China Influence Monitor, a weekly newsletter published by CEPA and Coda Story and edited by me, Edward Lucas. We track the westward footprint of China’s influence operations, and their effects on politics, economies, societies and alliances across Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia and Europe.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Clouds are gathering over the Beijing Winter Olympics, now only ten months away. Though the IOC stubbornly maintains its eyes-shut policy, hopes of a trouble-free sportwash are evaporating. The authorities will struggle to stop athletes from signaling their views, while foreign dignitaries can be conspicuous by their absence. Activists are asking sponsors such as Airbnb to withdraw. Profiting from sports tourism while collaborating with China’s racist travel bans on Tibetans and Uyghurs looks bad. Because it is.
A fifth of the world’s cotton-garment production includes yarn or fabric from Xinjiang (the Chinese name for the Uyghur homeland), with itchy ties to forced labor, genocide and mass incarceration in mind-control camps. Western human-rights standards mean scratching such products from your supply chain. But if you admit taking that step, the Chinese authorities punish you.