Mao pins worn by Chinese athletes may test Olympic rules

Disgusting but the cowardly IOC won't do anything to the Chicomms.

i'm shocked, shocked to find out that China broke the rules again. No details have been released yet of this post but it will be interesting to see if the IOC is intimidated to let it go

The IOC, WHO are like many other ‘international’ bodies, just cringe, cower and kowtow to their Big Brother.

This means they will ‘let it fly’.

*- “International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it is “looking into the matter.” -*

They’ve re-written the Athletes Guidebook 6 times ‘on the fly’ so this should be no different.

Good for them. No matter what thinks of Mao, (personally I think he was a really good guy early on but ruined that in/with the Cultural Revolution) they knew the corporate media in the West would throw a fit over it but did it anyway. A big * to the lying scumbags of the corporate media and their lackeys who can't think for themselves.

Let them wear their Mao pins. Let them return to Maoist times, if they so desire. I lived in China shortly after Mao died and Deng Xiaoping was struggling to reinvent the country. Though I understand that many in their hazy memory of history equate Maoism with egalitarianism, that was not the case. It was a hellish time. You followed the party line - which was tricky, as the party line shifted frequently - or you were exiled - or worse.

If the IOC chooses to let this one go, then Pandora's Box will be left wide open for the next winter Olympics in a few months' time. Don't be surprised if athletes come up with more than an X gesture to show support to Hong Kong, to Uyghurs and to other silenced voices whom the CCP despises. They may even go even further as to give the 2 fingers up with an inverted palm to China.

The beauty of a totalitarian state is that they can re-write history any way they want to suit their goals. Or bury any inconvenient facts. Then raise brainwashed generations thereafter.

"But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/08/03/giving-historys-greatest-mass-murderer-his-due/

China is having an amazing Olympics. They showed the world how to deal with covid effectively with the lockdowns and now thid performance at the Olympics. Go China!

"But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million "

Yep. According to multiple corporate media publications, Stalin among other things blame for all the deaths on the Eastern Front during the war and all the deaths in the battle for Manchuria.

If you are competing for the largest number of killings, the bronze medal is shared by Nazi Germany and fascist Japan. Silver goes to the North American colonists/leaders. Gold belongs to the European colonial powers in Africa and the subcontinent both in terms of absolute numbers and % of the population. The Spanish and Portuguese monarchies just missed out on a medal but the Mongolian Khans were well back. Unfortunately Stalin and Mao didn't make the final.

Unbelievable that this has happened. If this act of displaying the murderous Mao images is not ruled political - a clear show of support for Communism - then nothing is.

Lets see if the IOC is too cowardly to do anything to punish Communist China for this disgrace. Stripping the gold medal would be a start.

The CCP is trying to change history in many ways. Some of the internal-to-China stuff the CCP claims is passed lies, through crazy talk, and onto plead-level stuff. Mao is on the same level as Hitler for the deaths he caused. Younger Chinese don't get to learn the truth. Their parents and grand parents are old enough to remember some of the terrible things their CCP-govt has done.

How many millions of humans did Mao kill? ...

Ref: https://www.scmp.com/article/723956/revisiting-calamitous-time

'The death toll stands at a minimum of 45 million excess deaths ... Coercion, terror and systematic violence were the foundations of the Great Leap Forward. Thanks to the meticulous reports compiled by the party itself, we can infer that, between 1958 and 1962, by a rough approximation, six to eight per cent of the victims were tortured to death or summarily killed, amounting to at least 2.5 million people.'

What should the IoC do, if anything? I don't know. This is just another example of China trying to use the same methods of lies they use inside their country on the outside world. But we know the truth and won't stand for it being washed over.

When a country kills millions of their own people, no wonder Hong Kong and Macau and other parts of China really don't want to be under CCP rulers. They lie about big things AND tiny things. If it wasn't so very sad, it would be funny. I feel so bad for normal Chinese that have to worry about doing little things that the CCP don't like which could get them 're-educated'. Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYoeJ5U7cQ shows "Trainees" who are blindfolded and guarded. Clearly nobody got to opt out of that training.

China is clearly setting the stage for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to be another 1936 Berlin Olympics. A tool to advance and immerse their population in ultra-nationalism.

Yet there is not mention of all those runners doing that Catholic cross action before the race. I find that offensive.

There are some countries where those gestures are banned.

Not countries I’d like to live in.

Mao badges are pretty repulsive but I’m not sure I’d like to live in a world where they are banned.

blatantly promoting communism

Do you want the promotion of communism banned? The Chinese flag is a promotion of communism.

Any nation who attends Beijing 2022 is turning the other way and ignoring the mass genocide of Muslims. Simple as that. The worst genocide in the world since WW2. And the propoganda at that games will make it eerily similar to Hitler's Games.

Boycott the Genocide Games 2022.

The IOC should've come down on Saunders. The IOC should ban Mao badges and those athletes. The IOC should show some backbone, consistency and back up the things they say they're going to do.

The IOC should've come down on Saunders. The IOC should ban Mao badges and those athletes. The IOC should show some backbone, consistency and back up the things they say they're going to do.

This is the whole point. Either the IOC punishes them all or do nothing at all, no double standards either way. Considering that BLM-related matters have been banned from podium protocols a few months prior to the Olympics, it's the appearance of double standards that irks people more than anything.

Any nation who attends Beijing 2022 is turning the other way and ignoring the mass genocide of Muslims.

The only genocide of Muslims that has occurred is in the last 30 years is in Middle East. Iraq and Syria though direct military aggression resulting in terrible socioeconomic dislocation. In Libya in North Africa which was the most prosperous country in Africa until some criminal regimes decided it was better as a failed state with slaves now being sold in public markets. And in Afghanistan, Central Asia mostly by way of outright killings by invading foreign armies.

You know what all these genocides have in common? China wasn't/isn't involved in any of them.

The IOC has long claimed it is politically neutral

Politically neutral? Why can’t we call Taiwan by its real name then. Chinese Taipei?

You kowtow you lose.

Weather you agree with them or not, at least these Chinese athletes love their country, unlike some of the American-haters who are on Team USA.

That only because a "reeducation camp" awaits the Chinese Athletes if they don't outwardly "love" their country.

You are here and can post your above statement and if you were in the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, the EU, The UK, etc... you or anyone else could openly criticize the government. Now try that in China.

SpeedToday  08:41 am JST

The IOC should've come down on Saunders. The IOC should ban Mao badges and those athletes. The IOC should show some backbone, consistency and back up the things they say they're going to do.

That's right. And the Russian loophole team shouldn't be there. And allow Taiwan to be represented as they wish and with their own flag.

I said earlier that I gladly cheer on the Chinese athletes themselves but not the CCP dictatorship. Allowing the wearing of these Mao pins makes that impossible, undoubtedly China's goal.

Marxism is on the rise globally. We saw the way the World Health Organization was bent to China’s covid propaganda and coverup. We saw the BLM movement get a toehold in the US. The IOC has already acquiesced to the pre-competition BLM protests. China uses a strategy of incrementalism, pushing the envelope of proprietary little by little and before you know it they have changed what is considered acceptable.

The problem isn't Mao. The problem is that Mao equals politics and that is supposed to be forbidden. If the (I suspect) gutless Olympic gurus will allow Mao buttons, then everyone can wear any kind of buttons they like. And that will be a mess.

it's rather great to identify and report China's authoritarian symbol which might otherwise be largely left unnoticed.

Hope that President Bach and other key IOC officials have not been bribed...

The people who should be most offended by Mao should be the Chinese. He's responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese. His policies led to way more deaths than even the holocaust, but they were pretty much all Chinese. And their dictatorship forces them to love Mao, even though he killed so many of them.

I wonder what would happen if the German team wore a pin of Adolf Hitler if the reaction would be the same.

This is what I love about the Olympics. The stated aim of brining nations together in a land of milk and honey where there are rainbows 24/7 and the only thing visible are the smiling faces of the children, shining with their hopes and dreams!!

OssanAmerika:

The beauty of a totalitarian state is that they can re-write history any way they want to suit their goals. Or bury any inconvenient facts. Then raise brainwashed generations thereafter.

Shame your own country is struggling to teach slavery in history lessons.

Saunders needs to be fined or get a 1 month international tournament suspension. The gesture, even if not intended for the Chinese athlete or their nation was a political statement on the podium ceremony.

Bao and Zhong should be given the same fine and one month banishment. If political figures are allowed as pins on uniforms then Putitn, Obama, Merkel, Castro, Tenzin Gyatso, Hitler pins are all fair game.

Finally the IOC needs to sit down with the big teams (ROC, USA, PRC) and issue as strict warning of 1 year bans for any athlete protesting or politically highlight things during medal ceremonies.

The worst genocide in the world since WW2. And the propoganda at that games will make it eerily similar to Hitler's Games.

Not really. Look up Mao's killing. CCP govt paperwork shows 45M dead. That was from 1958-1962, after WW2.

In total, he was responsible for vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims through starvation, persecution, prison labour and mass executions. Not the great man the new CCP are trying to get average Chinese to believe.

Olympics not political? Besides this crass act, the Belarus athlete's treatment, USA allowed to stay in thier own hotel,GB allowed to skirt around vaccination / quarantine 'rules' .... the list goes on...

Bao and Zhong should be given the same fine and one month banishment

Sure but, does anyone here actually think they did this gesture on their own?

Under no reasonable thinking would a Chinese put something on their national uniform without direct instruction from above.

Anyone that can use a minimum of commonsense and logic knows that.

ChrisToday  08:56 am JST

Any nation who attends Beijing 2022 is turning the other way and ignoring the mass genocide of Muslims.

The only genocide of Muslims that has occurred is in the last 30 years is in Middle East. Iraq and Syria though direct military aggression resulting in terrible socioeconomic dislocation. In Libya in North Africa which was the most prosperous country in Africa until some criminal regimes decided it was better as a failed state with slaves now being sold in public markets. And in Afghanistan, Central Asia mostly by way of outright killings by invading foreign armies.

You know what all these genocides have in common? China wasn't/isn't involved in any of them.

More CCP/Russian propaganda

This is interesting, the question is why a mao badge and not a Xi one?

according an article in the times, due to bribery, income inequality, sexism, racism, exploitation, etc., young people are going back to maoism ideals that contradict CCP.

so much so that the CCP is actually censoring anything that criticizes the current regime including Mao ideals.

The Mao badge may actually be a slap on the face to Xi and the CCP.

You know what all these genocides have in common? China wasn't/isn't involved in any of them.

Yeah, chinese agression,

Vietnam, Korea, mongolia, russia, tibet, hong kong, cambodia, malaysia, taiwan, would disagree

▲

LOL

Even as a Communist, not the biggest fan of this. It does seem to go in the face of the Olympics being an apolitical entity. Not even just Mao, but the same should go for any political leader regardless of their ideology.

Granted, the Olympics today are anything but apolitical, but that should at least be the ideal they are shooting for where possible.

This is interesting, the question is why a mao badge and not a Xi one?

One point maybe worth raising is that it’s been commented that Mao has been more venerated under Xi than other Chinese leaders. Mao’s brutality and failures were fresh in the mind when Deng took over and he was understandably more focused on reform.

Maybe enough time has elapsed to get away with looking back on Mao as something other than what he was.

Kids in China probably wear mao pins like kids in the west wear ramones Tshirts.

Kids in China probably wear mao pins like kids in the west wear ramones Tshirts.

"Yi, er, san, si!"

Yeah, chinese agression,

Vietnam, Korea, mongolia, russia, tibet, hong kong, cambodia, malaysia, taiwan, would disagree

I must admit, I know Chinese is 5000 years old and they invented.......... almost every fundamental, civilization-making building block but I don't know about aggression against Vietnam, Russia, Cambodia, Malaysia. The other places are or have been part of China for 100s of years at least at one time or another. I also know about the Treasure Fleet. Leaders of the lands which now make up Cambodia and Malaysia pretty much begged Chinese authorities in Nanjing, the capital at that time, to send colonists to those lands and teach the locals how to build a modern (for the time) civilization.

This is a hint for Americans, Canadians, Australians. There was no need to wipe out the native peoples. Could have lived in peace with them like ethnic Chinese do all over SE Asia.

The Chinese Dream:

"There is a common saying in China: 'Under Mao the Chinese people stood up; under Deng, the Chinese people got rich; and under Xi, the Chinese people are becoming stronger.' Beginning with Mao, China's communist leaders have been focused on growing, strengthening, and returning China to its former glory while following Leninist ideology."

Newt Gingrich

The only thing worse than having no rule is having a rule that is not evenly/properly enforced.

No political gestures means just that. No pins, no kneeling before games, no raised fists, etc. Break the rule, lose your medal and get suspended. Pretty simple stuff. But the only thing the IOC fears more than corporate sponsors are big countries. So this kind of thing will slide.

As for Mao, the insanity of his economic policies, and the unspeakable horror he unleashed during the Cultural Revolution, should be enough to taint his image forever and consign him to the ranks of history's most evil and despicable characters.

ChrisToday  12:14 pm JST

So why do you care where the other person is from? Was the info he or she stated false? I don't think it was. Whatever Germany, China, Russia, Japan have or haven't done, it's thoroughly hypocritical for Americans and English to talk about without acknowledging the far worse crimes they have done everywhere they were able to gain ascendancy. 

The US killed 45 million people? Silly to mention in the same breath with those acts committed by those other countries.

Maybe the English committed crimes on the same scale as those other countries.

Mao is a politician.

You have Macron and Joe Biden visiting the Olympics, if they are allowed, why not Mao?

Yes, nice, make it compulsory that all participants show their historical political leaders. That will be funny to see, Ramses, DshingisKhan, Attila, Ataturk, Louis XIV, and some very bad guys, Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden… No problem, those pins don’t bite anyone and it might even be promote some history studies within the younger generations, if they see it and want to find out about it in the internet or public libraries. In that studying time they cannot do other stupid or violent things, right?

Maybe the English committed crimes on the same scale as those other countries.

Well, we did unleash the Spice Girls on the world.

Some dudeToday  12:41 pm JST

Well, we did unleash the Spice Girls on the world.

There you go! Back to some normalcy here.

Excellent retort.

Wow the CCP Russian commenter is quite active today.

I must admit, I know Chinese is 5000 years old and they invented.......... almost every fundamental, civilization-making building block but I don't know about aggression against

You would think the CCP would teach their people better English, even I as a native French speaker wouldn't be this bad

@Iron Lad

I think politicians visiting and showing overt support are fundamentally different. If a prominent figure of the CCP wanted to attend the games, that is fine. If an athlete wanted to wear a Mao pin, Obama Hope shirt, MAGA hat, free Hong Kong shirt, or a Suga cape the issue presents itself. At that point the athletes are making the political statement, which supposedly isn't allowed.

It really shouldn't be about your individual politics in this particular case. It only gets weird when the existence of a country is an inherently political statement (re: Taiwan).

Well, we did unleash the Spice Girls on the world.

People from poorer, less developed regions of the world are very thankful UK can only harm them with obnoxious music these days.

Wow the CCP Russian commenter is quite active today.

"Wow" I got you the first, second, third and fourth time.

Chinese is 5000 years old and they invented.......... almost every 

Silly tankie,

Taiwan is 5000 years old. CCP came after WW2 and is basically bastardization of Taiwan. CCP has engaged and meddle in most SE asia since its inception.

remember to respect history ; )

nice try though

Taiwan is 5000 years old. CCP came after WW2 and is basically bastardization of Taiwan.

Really? Which part of Taiwan is Xi'an (the ancient capital) in?

Taiwan is 5000 years old. CCP came after WW2 and is basically bastardization of Taiwan.

Though in some respects you unwittingly made a good point. I know many people in China, not senior Party members but normal citizens, are furious with the nationalists and by extension, the province of Taiwan, for looting many ancient artifacts during their retreat and basically holding them hostage today.

AntiquesavingToday  10:49 am JST

Bao and Zhong should be given the same fine and one month banishment

Sure but, does anyone here actually think they did this gesture on their own?

Under no reasonable thinking would a Chinese put something on their national uniform without direct instruction from above.

Anyone that can use a minimum of commonsense and logic knows that.

And anyone with common sense enough to post this would know that olympic uniforms, warm ups, and all official gear have to be approved by the IOC, thus classifying the pin as an accessory and it’s wearing a personal choice of an individual.

Now, in the spirit of fairness, the IOC has to address all the Olympic Committees and inform them that individuals who alter their uniforms for political statements will be subject to fines and if the issue is found to be state sponsored, repercussion at the national OC level can be developed.

Since we have 3 incidents over a 2 day span, it is best not to jump to conclusions but it is important to have the above mentioned. But that is just common sense.

As always, the commentary ten times more entertaining than the article. This was a good one. No pain no gain people! The witty warriors vs wolf warrior diplomats!

Good show people. Jolly good show.

Only to be expected from the brainwashed patriotic Chinese with a twisted knowledge of history altered by the CCP. Boycott Chinese Olympics, I say.

Chris

The only genocide of Muslims that has occurred is in the last 30 years is in Middle East. Iraq and Syria though direct military aggression resulting in terrible socioeconomic dislocation. In Libya in North Africa which was the most prosperous country in Africa until some criminal regimes decided it was better as a failed state with slaves now being sold in public markets. And in Afghanistan, Central Asia mostly by way of outright killings by invading foreign armies.

You know what all these genocides have in common? China wasn't/isn't involved in any of them.

I am as dismayed at the globalist warmongering as you are, but none of the civils wars and tribal conflicts that US meddling created was a "muslim genocide". The CCP plans for Xinjian province comes with their ethnic replacement comes close.

In any case, the "others did it too" slogan is no excuse for the CCP.

Let them wear the pins, so that other countries can wear their pins in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics