http://www.news.cn/english/2021-11/30/c_1310343408.htm
This article talks about how some Western Politicians have considered boycotting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for “diplomatic reasons”. A few politicians are boycotting the Beijing olympics by not sending government officials to the event. The longest serving member of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has stated that this boycott is counterintuitive to what the olympics stand for. He goes on to say how the olympians that have worked so hard for this moment should not be punished because of diplomatic issues one’s country may have with another. He also goes on to say that the philosophy of bringing countries together through sports is being broken through this boycott because of the athletes that won’t be able to share this moment because of their country’s diplomatic issues.
This article is important because the olympics is not something that is supposed to be brought into issues between countries. If anything, it is supposed to help resolve those issues through sharing heart felt moments with some of the top athletes competing against one another. However, this is completely eliminated if countries decide to back out of the event all together. It is honestly pretty immature of a country to do this as the olympics are not meant to be something that brings up problems between countries.
This relates to what we talk about in class through the topic of liberalism. The countries backing out obviously do not believe in trying to compromise their issues and believe in the reciprocity approach. They take the “my way or the highway approach” when taking an action like this, and the truth is is that this will not lead to any solution at all. If anything, it will just make it worse for these politicians to try and resolve these diplomatic problems. Liberalism is by no means the right way to go all the time, but an attempt at compromise never hurts.