Beijing Winter Olympics and China’s Middle East Diplomacy in the Xi Era

ABSTRACT

Sports diplomacy, host diplomacy and pandemic diplomacy intertwined in the Beijing Winter Olympics and jointly served China’s overall diplomacy. The Middle East region has a long history of participation in the Winter Olympics. A total of seven Middle East countries, including Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Iran, participated in Beijing Winter Olympics, while Israel and Iran participated in the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games. Middle East countries generally help China break the politicization of the Winter Olympics from other countries. Thanks to the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese president and leaders of Middle East countries met offline for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also conducive to the new development of relations between China and the Middle East in the post-pandemic era. The leaders of Egypt, the UAE and Qatar also took the opportunity of attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics to hold their own meetings, which is conducive to the further repair of the relations among these countries since the Qatar diplomatic crisis. The Beijing Winter Olympics objectively set up a platform to promote the easing of crisis issues in the Middle East.

KEYWORDS:

• Beijing Winter Olympics
• Middle East
• sports diplomacy
• host diplomacy
• pandemic diplomacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

[1] The concept of ‘host diplomacy’ is: various important bilateral and multilateral diplomacy activities hosted by a country within its borders, in which the host country’s government can play an important role and exert a positive influence on its efforts to maintain and expand its national interests. See D. Chen, ‘China’s “host diplomacy”: opportunities, challenges and undertakings’, China International Studies, 19(5), 2014, p. 13.

[2] K. Abdi, M. Talebpour, J. Fullerton, M. Ranjkesh and H. Nooghabi, ‘Converting sports diplomacy to diplomatic outcomes: introducing a sports diplomacy model’, International Area Studies Review, 21(4), 2018, pp. 365–81.

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[7] ‘Summary by China News Agency: what is the significance of Shanghai’s bid to host the Special Olympics World Games?’(23 March 2002), China News, https://www.chinanews.com.cn/2002-03-22/26/172091.html (accessed 1 December 2022).

[8] Arab countries also actively participated in the Shanghai Special Olympics, see C. Bao and W. Li, ‘The harmonious interaction between Arab countries and Special Olympics Games’, Arab World Studies, 27(8), 2008.

[9] Central People’s Government of China, ‘Hu Jintao met with Timothy Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics and the two held cordial talks’ (2 October 2007), http://www.gov.cn/ldhd/2007–10/02/content_767436.htm (accessed 1 December 2022).

[10] Y. Lou, ‘Humanistic sprit is the core of Chinese culture’, Financial View, 21(6), 2016, p. 2.

[11] ‘Full text of Xi Jinping’s report at 19th CPC National Congress’ (3 November 2017), Xinhua, http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/download/Xi_Jinping’s_report_at_19th_CPC_National_Congress.pdf (accessed December 1 2022).

[12] ‘Xi Jinping carried on the inspection in Beijing, Hebei, and presided over the reporting meeting of the preparation works for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games’ (20 January 2021), CCTV, https://tv.cctv.com/2021/01/20/ARTIwp3uwz8skzQxIRhBeD3d210120.shtml (accessed 1 December 2022).

[13] H. Han, ‘Sports diplomacy strategy of Xi Jinping’s great power governance in the new era’, Sports & Science, 40(1), 2019, pp. 1–8.

[14] M. Cheng, C. Wang and D. Zhang, ‘Internal mechanism and external values of Xi Jinping’s sports diplomacy practice: from perspective of moral realism’, Journal of Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, 62(2), 2020, pp. 5–10.

[15] W. Shi, T. Shi, Y. Wan, H. Cai and H. Han, ‘An exploration of the content and structure of Xi Jinping’s important treatise on sports diplomacy’, Journal of Guangzhou Sport University, 41(3), 2021, p. 2.

[16] ‘Wang Yi: the light of unity and cooperation gathered during the Winter Olympics will surely penetrate the haze, wind and rain’, Beijing Daily, 7 March 2022.

[17] There is no final or semi-final for ski jumping, alpine skiing and figure skating. Athletes are ranked by score only.

[18] B. Bai, W. Li and P. Tong, ‘The Iranian minister of Youth Affairs and Sports praised the opening ceremony for its completeness’, Beijing Daily, 10 February 2022.

[19] M. Guo, ‘Cyprus Olympic Committee: firmly opposing to the politicization of sports, convincing that the Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be a complete success’, Xinhua, 25 January 2022.

[20] ‘Demonstrating the extraordinary sports spirit and uniting the strength of solidarity and friendship: the athletes, sports officials and experts from many countries spoke highly of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games’, Xinhua, 20 February 2022.

[21] P. Huang, ‘Liao Liqiang, Chinese ambassador to Egypt: president Sisi’s participation in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics fully reflects China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership’, People.cn, 5 February 2022, http://world.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0205/c1002–32345708.html (accessed December 1 2022).

[22] Embassy of China in Qatar, ‘Chinese ambassador to Qatar Zhou Jian gave a written interview to the media of Qatar on President Xi Jinping’s meeting with the Emir of Qatar who came to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics’ (6 February 2022), http://switzerlandemb.fmprc.gov.cn/web/zwbd_673032/wjzs/202202/t20220206_10639417.shtml (accessed 1 December 2022).

[23] J. Hou, ‘Graceful beauty of Winter Olympics: Arab “square array” comes from the desert’, Globe, 43(4), 2022.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Y. Li, ‘A review of the balanced foreign policy of the Egyptian Sisi government’, West Asia and Africa, 39(5), 2019, p. 99.

[27] Ibid., p. 99.

[28] S. Niu and R. Wu, ‘Beyond “vaccine nationalism”: China’s cooperation with the Middle East in COVID-19 vaccine’, China: An International Journal, 21(1), 2023.

[29] ‘Xi Jinping met with Egyptian president Sisi’, Xinhua, 5 February 2022.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Ibid.

[32] ‘Xi Jinping met with Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi, UAE’, People’s Daily, 6 February 2022.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid.

[35] ‘Xi Jinping met with Emir Tamim of Qatar’, People’s Daily, 6 February 2022.

[36] Panda is China’s national treasure, and ‘Panda Diplomacy’ has made great contributions to China’s friendly exchanges with other countries.

[37] ‘Xi Jinping met with Emir Tamim of Qatar’, People’s Daily, February 6, 2022.

[38] Embassy of China in Qatar, ‘Chinese ambassador to Qatar Zhou Jian: Emir Tamim’s visit to China this time demonstrates his firm support for the Beijing Winter Olympics’ (9 February 2022), http://www.chinaarabcf.org/zagx/sjfc/202202/t20220209_10640427.htm (accessed 1 December 2022).

[39] Ministry of Foreign Affair of China, ‘Wang Yi holds talks with Algerian foreign minister Lamamra’ (20 March 2022), https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/wjbzhd/202203/t20220320_10653595.shtml (accessed 1 December 2022).

[40] Ministry of Foreign Affair of China, ‘Zhai Jun, the special envoy of the Chinese Government on the Middle East visits Egypt’ (22 March 2022), https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjdt_674879/sjxw_674887/202203/t20220322_10654036.shtml (accessed 1 December 2022).

[41] Ministry of Foreign Affair of China, ‘Wang Yi attends the opening ceremony of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’ (22 March 2022), https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/wjbzhd/202203/t20220322_10654196.shtml (accessed 1 December 2022).

[42] Ibid.

[43] Ministry of Foreign Affair of China, ‘Zhai Jun, the special envoy of the Chinese Government on the Middle East visits Morocco’ (28 March 2022), https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/wjdt_674879/sjxw_674887/202203/t20220328_10656427.shtml (accessed 1 December 2022).

[44] ‘Wang Yi: jointly prepare for the China-Arab summit’, Xinhua, 7 March 2021, http://www.xinhuanet.com/2021–03/07/c_1127180162.htm (accessed 1 December 2022).

[45] ‘Proof that Qatar News Agency was not hacked’, Al Arabiya, 24 May 2017, https://english.alarabiya.net/media/digital/2017/05/24/Proof-that-Qatar-News-Agency-was-not-hacked (accessed 1 December 2022).

[46] ‘Egyptian President Sisi meets with Emir of Qatar in Beijing’, Egypt Today, 5 February 2022, https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/112556/Egyptian-President-Sisi-meets-with-Emir-of-Qatar-in-Beijing (accessed 1 December 2022).

[47] S. Frantzman, ‘Beijing Olympics serve as venue for Middle East leaders to meet’, Jerusalem Post, 5 February 2022.

[48] See S. Niu and D. Wang, ‘“Three Summits” and the new development of China-Arab states relations in the new era’, Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 17(1), 2023.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Key Research Institute in University of the Chinese MOE [2022JDPA002].