britain, every aspect of british life has been enriched by 4 generations of people who came from islands across the atlantic. it's an important historic show planned before black lives matter and the black cultural renee silence, current events, giving the exhibition even greater impact. jessica baldwin al jazeera london ah half off the hour, and these are the top stories g 7 foreign ministers gathering in liverpool in the u . k. long with delegates from assay on nations. the british foreign secretary is called for western unity against authoritarianism and threats from russia and china, where we challenge more with more from liberal lives truss who's hosting this event is very much seeing this as a kind of meeting of the free world. as he puts there and of like minded countries,

and that such like monte countries have duty to be united in their, in their perspective on threats that the free, well does, she might say is under now those threats, of course, in the moment, primarily coven, 19 with omicron, the new variance spreading around the world. they have much to talk about on that front. talks to revive the 2015 iran nuclear deal continue for another day in vienna. according to state television, iran president abraham rice, c. a said to her on a serious about the negotiations and world pounds, a willing to remove sanction in an agreement can be reached. palestinians in the elk by west bank of voting and local elections. the 1st polls in 2 years. however, the leaders of sutton and ham ask remain at odds of a when to hold a general election. the last one of those was 15 years ago. people in the u. s. can

now send money to i've got to start using financial institutions which are controlled by the taliban and the how county network groups are otherwise subject to us. sanctions. this money though, a lifeline for many afghans, the u. n. his warning, nearly 9000000 of them are facing famines. this wind protest is in australia, marching against corona, virus restrictions and compulsory vaccination live pictures from vienna, here with a lockdown n for the vaccinated on sunday, but continues for people who are unvaccinated. vaccines will be mandatory for every austria and older than 14, from february. that is for people have been killed and several others injured after a tornado ripped through eastern parts of the united states. in illinois, the extreme weather caused a roof to collapse at an amazon warehouse emergency crews trying to rescue dozens of people still trapped inside. let's find out for the day peter w will take you through the next few hours of news inside story. the next. ah, ah ah,

was will a diplomatic boy called the beijing winter olympics? the chief canada is the latest country to join australia, britain and the united states, to protest against china's human rights for all the political issues at play. this is inside store. ah ah and welcome to the program. i'm nick log sport and politics often makes whenever the olympic games are held. it will apparently be no different for the aging when games due to begin in february. despite chime is repeated,

the dials of human rights violations, and suppression of freedoms, particularly unchanging and hong kong. the chinese leadership is coming under increasing scrutiny. canada is joining the us, britain and australia in a diplomatic quarter. the gains athletes from the 4 countries will still go to aging, but government representatives won't be there for the opening and closing ceremonies ought to attend official functions. so far other countries, the more reluctant to join in france's president calls, the boy got insignificant and pointless. responsible, but put, if you don't think we should politicize this to make very small and symbolic measures either we say we're going to do a complete boyd calling. we're not going to send any athlete. we're going to try to re engage and have workable useful actions. i'm more in favor of doing things that have reduced fully what aside from human rights for boycotting countries have concerns about china? for example, donald trump launched a trade war because of what the former us president said. we're china is unfair

practices. britain and several western nations have banned the chinese telecoms company while away from the networks because of concerns that the chinese government agents could infiltrate the equipment for spine. when the canadian police arrested while the executive may 1. so, at washington's request place in china swiftly detained. 2 canadians, oh, have since been released and australia and good beijing by demanding an international investigation into the origins of private 19. china is warning the full boycotting nations that they will pay a price for you to all. where should i want to point out that asian winter? olympics gains is a stage for winter sports or any act that attempts to politicize sports with the name of human rights and freedom violates the spirit of the olympic charter, or china is firmly opposed to the alright, let's bring it in. i guess from sol in south korea, big to t o is political scientists affiliated with the cold war project at the university

of cambridge here. and ross griffin is a middle east editor of the international journal of the history of sports and from portland in the state of oregon. we have jewels book of chair of the pacific universities politics and government department is also former professional and olympics and will welcome to you all of it to you. i'd like to start with you 1st and so and if i may at this point, cause is it driven by a real objection to chinese human rights abuses, or is it all about countries, individual spots with china? well, i think there has always been genuine concerns about human rights with, with china in particular. and this is, has been if you'd like the constant issue inside on us relations in swell since $572.00 when the us and china normalized relations. but having said that,

this human rights concern did not prevent the americans from establishing good relations with china. you know, in june to out the cold. oh, in the latter part of the cold war, and right up to that on a truck and ministration. so the question is, where is why now and why make a big issue over human rights? because they have co exist quite quite well with the past. well, i will say 4050 years even though human rights has been a constant. so i think the heart of the issue is not just about human rights, but really jewel, political, possible between the 1st of all, the chinese and the americans. and secondly, there are domestic, consider political considerations on the part of the, by the administration. this is due to the fact that the republicans have been going very strong criticizing by the ministration for an ongoing,

harder on china. so that by the way, ministration wants to be seen doing something you know, to confirm the chinese. and i think they picked this boat up. all of the issue is one of the things that they feel that they, they could actually do it right. you know, fan or criticisms show and it draw jose broke up. what's your why now, why make such a big issue have of human rights when you know it's often just ignored? i think that's exactly right, that the olympics provide an opportunity to speak out about what are gross human rights violations in china. in the united states, essentially, china has become a bipartisan punching bag. both republicans and democrats are beating up on china right now. it's a very fraught moment. i mean, the u. s. defense department needs no assistance whatsoever. when it comes to the political demon ization of the country and i think that's what we're seeing right now. back in 2018 there was

a pole. busy that was done to assess in the united states what they believe people here believed the threat of china was and it was only 48 percent in 2018. thought that china was a threat earlier this year. yet another poll up to 67 percent, and so the olympics provide the huge spectacle that the entire world watches. but we're seeing something wider happening here in the united states. what i think is argue, arguably the political demon ization of the united states and it has serious potential ramifications. roles, griffin, i'm wondering what degree this is this can have an effect. anyway. i mean, how much of a statement is being made by government officials not attending in this way? because, you know, after all, it's the athletes that count here and they're still going in many ways, these kinds of boy costs are very much symbolic thing by letting the athletes pull to the u. s. for example, this will get more of a victory if you want to look at it from meditech perspective,

which is so often used to judge how successful nation is in comparison to others. we often see some of the games. so by telling there are these, you cannot go, you're penalizing or punishing these people, but they're nice for years to train for these games, but by letting them go, you get the good grace, all your speech competing. and you also get the possibility of asserting the ideological dominance, or you can actually win. and by suggesting a boy cost you are raising awareness of the alleged issue that you think is a concern that the rest of the words to keep up. so we're looking at it in terms of those to listen to mac, crohn's words there are a few minutes ago and not lead only boy carter, one to pull the athletes out of the games is one. that's very, very clumsy move, but this one has a possibility of showing or applying a bit of finesse to the situation that would allow us when on both sides. yeah,

yeah, china says it doesn't care, does, doesn't it? and, you know, as far as they're concerned, victor g l, there is already some impact, isn't it? because it, china is not achieving what hope to gain from this and that is positive p r. of course, right now, or anybody is talking about is human rights abuses. are not support what they have been talking about does seem generally issue for a long while now. and so it's not just this couple of months, i think in so following chinese concern, it's this couple of years has always been about damage control. not so much volt propagating and building a positive image. so this is one of the, you know, considerations in, in china now in it, regardless of what the say the americans and japan and whoever else is going to see what they like. so, but it's not only so much the administration, so this countries, it also the social media and the, you know, the mass media in general because these countries have a free president, the chinese have no control. but so i think the chinese have lashley would,

i would say not put, building a positive image abroad in this country's top parity. but at the same time, i think i want to highlight it. the chinese have a 0 covey policy. so they are somehow concerned about them flaps of lush number of people coming to china the same time. so the, the, the i m b fill in about is the one to host a successful and picked by the same time, the one to limit the number of foreigners coming into the country. all right, well we've had boy coats before. limit boycott set on new, but they've always been the athletes themselves in 1980 the u. s. pulled it's athletes out of the moscow summer olympics and protest against the soviet invasion of afghanistan. the soviet union and its allies got their own back on the americans by, by cutting the following lympics held in los angeles in 184 at all the while new zealand had said it's not sending officials to the beijing olympics due to pandemic health concerns and japan is among other countries reported to be considering diplomatic boycotts of the games. russ griffin,

these boy caught soon when they've been vold athletes as well, what kind of success have they had in implementing change down the line? it's a tough for the cars is very subjective. one part of the games. i think everybody already caused it to the most famous boy. 19801984 as you mentioned there. but in terms of effectiveness, the 1976 games in montreal is it often goes under the radar where you had and he was 28 african nations who boy taught the montreal games because new zealand i just mentioned a few seconds ago in back in a rope the tour in africa that summer and isn't the week of the sweater riots in may or june of that year. and it was one of the more effective boycotts in the us. it reads a huge amount of awareness about what it was actually happening in africa. and it gave a very strong impression of united africa against apartheid. and that was one of

the few successful boy cut melinta games to actually achieve anything you look at the 2 later ones. one's immediately following the america and 6465 countries boy taught those games. but still many athletes from like britain or australia, they participated in the games anyway, underly flag guard under national committee. so they still attended the americans were the only ones who really, with their axes punishing their seats essentially. and it didn't achieve anything in the greater scheme of things saw the invasion of afghanistan didn't finish 900 years or something. so it's aimed were political aims were optimally a failure. but if you go back to the history of the olympics, there has been various boy costs or suggestions. and not many of them actually achieved anything of knows anything under the work. so so joe broke up,

is it likely that this kind of more, perhaps subtle approach could work, could apply pressure on the chinese government? is it likely to make a difference? well, i would 1st just say china boycotted the 1980 olympics in the soviet union as well . and also china boycotted in 1964 the tokyo games. and so all of a sudden they very much change their tune and saying these days that the olympics shouldn't be political. well, they were very political for china back in that time frame in terms of moving forward. i mean, i think what's interesting to keep an eye on is, will countries expand the diplomatic boycott into a potential athlete boycott? athletes are very much in the middle on this one. and if you think about it, who put them there, the international olympic committee put the athletes in this very difficult position. if athletes were to lead a boycott in beijing, which i don't anticipate, but it's certainly a possibility that could be extraordinarily powerful and effective. if governments

as what happened in 19801984 decided not to send their athletes. that could be a real dud, after all, here in the united states and other countries were athletes did not go to the olympics. there's a real sour taste in the mouth. you have numerous olympians with asterisks next to their names and they're feeling pretty crummy about it. and they've been quite vociferous about feeling crummy about it. and so i don't anticipate that, but the diplomatic boycott that we see in place allows for countries to prevent china from engaging what we call these days sports washing using these big sports mega bands to try to launder your international reputation on the world stage. in other words, scrub away the human rights violations and try to look legitimate on the world stage. and the diplomatic boycott has been effective about talking about rights violations instead of how wonderful china is for hosting this mega thing is jewels macro. and the french president says, you shouldn't politicize olympics, but how can you not when you have stories of not only by the human rights abuses,

but the current story of, of the tend to stop from sway? who's been censored? absolutely. well, 1st of all, when my crone says we shouldn't intersect politics and sports, we might want to keep in mind that paris is slated to host the 2024 right olympics, the summer olympics. and so they might be a little reticent to speak out on this in order to stay inside of the good graces of the international olympic committee. which, by the way, the international committee has said from its inception that politics in sports don't mix. but that has been a fairy tale from day one. after all, the plucky french aristocrat, baron pierre, to cooper time, who assembled the 1st international emperor committee, brought together a political power brokers and knew he, he understood they needed their support for the olympics to survive. skinner, ahead to 1936 when hitler used the olympics of the trampoline for his invasion of, of europe. think ahead to the cold war. we've already been talking about where the olympics were essentially a proxy battle zone for the united states and soviet union and all of their allies

and satellites all the way till today, where it's obviously political. so the olympics are political through and through. and anybody who tells you otherwise is probably milking the olympic cow with both hands. in other words, what i'm saying is they're making their money off the olympic games. right. and say, ross griffin shouldn't be more onus on the international olympic committee to manage it. and perhaps it should be more about not awarding big events like this to countries with, with say, poor, poor track record and human rights. yeah. but the i o. c is a, it's not a neutral broker. and all of this, i'm a jesse mentioned the 1946 games in berlin. the i c has a track record of giving games to very nations, but a dubious background was often forgotten in history. is that the games after the games wanted to call them that were going to japan in 1940 only for the outbreak of world war 2. so with a lot of events nowadays,

there are other concerns other than sports washing. what's going on in the background? a lot of nations, lot of cities that are once again what they can't afford them. i think the bidding for the paris games was almost shambolic for a finish because a lot of countries are lot of cities that pulled out wrong, being one that was much of the other where they had plebiscites that were people are saying, we don't want to spend millions upon millions on these games when we need schools need a role need hostetter improved or build or infrastructure improve. and so the feel is not allowing for countries that are willing to put up their hand and host these kinds of vacancy or do you think there's a split now in the, in the way the west wants to deal with china. because as far as this is concerned, as to think the not a unified approach, us talk bras might not be attending, but the un secretary general has been violated and he is signaling that he's going to attend the up near the games. i wouldn't say that it's split it,

it has always been this case. you know what the united states is, the most powerful country in the world, but it still is unable to get its way all the time. there are many issues that some all mold or some of the an ice willing to go along and some issues that are not willing to go along. so in this case, like i said, you know, the front front is obviously thing a different thing, but i suspect the french are reacting to the previous episode where the u. s. displayed the french in the australian submarine deal. and the french president is now trying to, you know, i wouldn't say it's a payback, but it's trying to say something very different to show it only one kind of leadership within the western block. there are other allies, u. s. l i said, are also saying differently, so if you look at the japanese and the south koreans be so pretty ambivalent about

following the us into the diplomatic boy caught japanese prime minister has not actually has actually said it would take the national interest in consideration. what this usually means is that you still thinking there of course the voices with in japan from the conservative party, the o d. p. they have been you know, whipping up using the chinese as a punching bag for the last good. i would say 9 years, enjoy hobby has come, all the previous family says come up very strongly saying that your pension joined a boy. he caught but he sheet. i know i think he, he wants to do. he wants to have a good relations with united states by at the same time, he is very mindful of the fragility of japan china relations. and i think what he wants to prevent religion is from you or anything. when he comes to the korean is the korean, the south koreans have a different idea with a host of the previous winter games. so the korean government has actually come out of saying that south korea has enrolled at the host of the previous games. it,

it's signaling that it's unlike either join the boy called or do they might be pressured into sending not so senior dedication. we're not in your officials to paging. so i guess the point is the different countries, even if the ally to the united states might actually react differently to this, you know, whatever proposal that the us puts on the table. so, jewels china is pretty angry about this, saying it's going to fight back and resolute countermeasures it talks of, and companies will pay the price for their mistaken acts. what do you think? baze? that reaction will be. how do you think they can fight back? well, they had a lot of measures at their disposal given their economic power right now, as well as their influence around the world banks, through their belt and road initiative. they have a lot of people that have endeared themselves to china. and we shouldn't forget the fact that they have made a lot of friends over the years. so yes,

economic sanctions definitely seem in the realm of possibilities. you want to keep it inside of the olympics. fear there is the los angeles olympics coming up in 2020 age, which they have already intimated that they might try to do a diplomatic boycott in return. so they have a lot of possibilities that they're measure. you know, one thing that i think is important to put into the frame is what mr. griffin mentioned before about the role of the international limpid committee. i mean, after all, they have all these wonderful ideas inside of their olympic charter about human rights and freedom and the dignity of the individual which are being basically thrown out the window right now in their selection of aging and their backing of beijing all the way through the olympics, given the human rights abuses that are happening there. and i think as we move forward, it will be interesting to see whether the verbal volleys between the united states and china, distract from the fact that the international limpid committee created the original sin here. which is to say giving the olympics to china even though they knew full well. there had not been advancements in human rights since china hosted the games

back in 2008 rossi. they can be any impact on this as far as the i. c is concerned from the boycott to serve you mean? yeah, legit oper is i don't think so. i think i think you know she will go to whoever is willing to horse the games and pay for the games on the scene. seems to be very, very selective. in how they deal with protest, thinking back just the tokyo games where you are, the american shot or rhythm saunders. she made her process for the black lives matter movement and there was no real. even though she was threatened with disciplinary action. there was nothing that came against her for that process, nor should there have been, but the see seems to be very selective and hold apply. it's measures in all cases, there's very willing to turn a blind eye to certain brokers, certain people, certain nations like a lot of these trans national sporting organizations. i think they're very,

very flexible and how they are apply their policies in getting ultimately this is more about the collision of, of 2 world views. more a reflection of a real world crisis that is ongoing right now between you know, supervisor. yes and no i'm, i'm very worried about the trajectory of the us china relations because the kind of mary tease we among the western block. and of course i read the papers every day, new york times, wall street journal, bloomberg. reuters, the kind of thing for the thing is, you know, it's, it's, well, there's a lot of shows that by the same time there's a lot of people you can try now the political football. but i think that, that if you, i mean i pay attention to what is being said in chinese, on the chinese side too. and it's, we see a reflection of what is being done in the west and press the chinese actually doing it. so if you put a chinese foreign chinese discussion, chinese trade groups,

it is the kind the exact same kind of the migration that is going on. and that's really worrying because we actually have parallel universe. i'm not sure if that's the correct correct and the use but to step the set of genuine separation of you know, the global community that is brewing. and i think that that is actually the concept . and finally, if this does gain traction, i guess we should focus elsewhere. and that is that the corporate sponsors of events like this of, you know, chris gutter at b and b would they be reassessing their involvement and a huge event like this. i can give you the honest answer. i'd give you a corporate answer. honest answer. i think a lot of these companies are motivated by the bottom line, and i don't think there is a hope and heads are ever going to isolate market is biggest china and they're just play ball. they will turn the same blind that the likes of the i o. c, as in many countries in the past, 506078 years. and they just carry on regardless. a lot of these companies might

think this, the phrase is bar to signalling and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, they are private corporations, shareholders or whatever. and they will be on the hoardings of the winter olympics next february, next year. when the games happens, they will be with the see to to content or judge this been a terrific discussion. do appreciate your time. thanks very much. and dave, to join insights all i guess civic did here at ross griffin and jules or co, thanks very much. and thank you to for watching, you can see the whole program again anytime by visiting our website out to 0 dot com. and for further discussion, you can go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash a j inside story. and you can also join the conversation on twitter. handle is at a j inside the door for me, the clock and the whole team here. good bye for now. the

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