Last year, China notoriously disappeared no less a person than Jack Ma, its Jeff Bezos who founded Amazon-like Alibaba, for three months. All indications are that the government detained him for re-education after he got so big for his britches, he thought he could publicly ridicule the ham-handed way apparatchiks were implementing President Xi’s domestic agenda.
When Ma returned to public life, the erstwhile flamboyant and outspoken billionaire, was not only far more humble but also far less rich.
So, if China had no compunctions about disappearing and re-educating Ma so brazenly, one could hardly expect it to have any about disappearing and re-educating a movie or tennis star. Moreover, just imagine how many lesser-known Chinese the government routinely disappears without any fanfare.
By the way, the whole point of Xi deifying himself, while disappearing others (including “the Reese Witherspoon of China”, Zhao Wei) is that he’s cultivating a cult of personality. And for that to work China can only have one celebrity, and that celebrity must be Xi.
Anyway, that explains the ham-handed media farce China is acting out over the disappearance of Peng Shuai. Here is how the BBC reported on it earlier today:
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The head of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has cast doubt on an email released by Chinese state media attributed to tennis player Peng Shuai.
The tennis star has not been heard from since she made sexual assault allegations against a top Chinese government official two weeks ago.
In the email, Ms Peng purportedly says the allegations are “not true”. …
Ms Peng – a former number one-ranked tennis doubles player – had not been heard from since posting an allegation about former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Chinese social media site Weibo in early November.
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Unsurprisingly, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Billie Jean King, and Novak Djokovic are leading a chorus of superstars in the tennis world demanding answers – complete with the social media hashtag: #WhereIsPengShuai
Except it is self-evident that this hashtag campaign will have no greater impact or effect than other fleeting ones like #BringBackOurGirls. I am on record ridiculing such viral consciousness campaigns that disappear as quickly as they trend.
But I cannot overstate that Peng’s disappearance is just the latest red flag showing why Western democracies face the categorical imperative of decoupling from China. Another was its decision just weeks ago to ban all media coverage or mentions of the Boston Celtics. This, just because one of its players dared to post a video on social media criticizing China’s iron-fisted rule over Tibet. That provoked me to post “China: Snowflake Censorship at Home Rivals Bullying Foreign Policy” in October 2021.
Of course, the overreaction it displayed to punish the Celtics has become China’s modus operandi in its dealings with all Westerners. The aim is clearly to make anyone who has any pecuniary interest in its lucrative market live in constant fear of causing even a slight crack while walking on the egg shells, which constitute respecting China’s increasingly Orwellian, woke culture.
Unfortunately, even more than Putin’s Russia, Xi’s China has just cause to believe it can act with impunity. US companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft have seen to that.
But I’ve been arguing for over a year that the only way Western countries can regain the moral high ground in their dealings with China is to force the IOC to relocate the 2022 Beijing Olympics. This, based on the same principle that moved them to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The categorical imperative for doing the former is clearly greater. Let the chips fall where they may.
Please note that my call was to relocate, not to boycott, the Olympics. Because boycotting only punishes the athletes. Except the painful reality is that, with less than three months to go at this point, boycotting might be the only option left.
For the record, though, companies, not athletes, should be boycotting. That’s why I am so heartened by this:
Yahoo … is getting out of China because of the mounting hurdles to doing business in the country. Yahoo follows LinkedIn … in decamping from China. That company said it was packing up last month, becoming the last major U.S. social media provider to leave.
(Bloomberg, November 2, 2021)
The prevailing point, is that the West must begin standing up to China. And the only way to do that is by treating it as an even more menacing pariah than North Korea and the old Soviet Union ever were … combined.
But the diplomatic boycott some are proposing simply won’t do. Not least because the effect would be tantamount to a teenager thinking her parents won’t find out because she’s only a little bit pregnant.
Frankly, China is calculating (indeed banking) that Western politicians, CEOs, and athletes are all so venal (or indebted to it), they’d even overlook genocide for access to its lucrative market, and to remain in its good graces. But I say to those politicians, what price political comity? To those CEOs, what price economic fortune? To those athletes, what price Olympic glory?
Meanwhile, I hope the professional athletes, especially tennis players, who are speaking out on Peng’s behalf understand that they cannot play another match in China (assuming they’re allowed) until Chinese authorities provide proof she’s alive and truly free. By the same token, of course, the WTA cannot sanction another tournament there.
After all, to do so without that proof would be to endorse not just China’s treatment of her, but the human rights abuses that are becoming the hallmark of Xi’s authoritarian rule… This is why iPINIONS was so impressed when WTA head Steve Simon acknowledged on CNN tonight that the West is at a crossroads with China, and that every US company should now choose right over wrong – no matter the financial consequences. He made clear the WTA is prepared to leave China and lose $1 billion over Peng’s disappearance.
Again, China has predicated its rise on the willingness of Westerners to sacrifice their souls for cheap stuff and a quick buck. But, in every respect, China needs Westerners more than Westerners need China. So it behooves America to lead Westerners in finally calling China’s bluff.
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Thursday, at 8:05 pm
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