US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Photo: VCG

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called for a "diplomatic boycott" of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, saying that world leaders should shun the Games. She claimed that for heads of state who sit in the seats of the Games in China, "what moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world?"

Pelosi's clamor actually exposes a sense of powerlessness of the US extreme political elite. The most radical Western politicians have been advocating a complete boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, or to change the host city. But Olympic Committee and athletes of all countries strongly oppose this idea. People like Pelosi understand that it is unrealistic to sabotage the Beijing Winter Olympics that way. They are forced to accept failure and seek the second best. Now they promote a "diplomatic boycott," which is not only a way to continue to cause trouble for Beijing, but also to give themselves an out.

However, they will continue to fail. If the US really initiates a diplomatic boycott, not many countries will follow. Eventually, it will be limited to the same small circle of some Western countries that entertain themselves with exclusive politics. This has been performed many times in Western attacks of human rights in China's Xinjiang region. There is nothing new in the clichés they have repeatedly clamored, with little impact and fewer audiences left. China is not afraid that the US will rally several allies to perform it again.

The Olympic Games are organized by the International Olympic Committee, and the venues are just host cities. There is strong international public opinion which opposes turning sports into politics, adding great pressure to some US and Western politicians who want to hype the Beijing Winter Olympics. Now is not the 1980s when politicians can wantonly use the Olympics to stir things up. For the people who want to reverse history, the pressure they face is not any less than the pressure they deliberately create for others.

Few people now expect a turnaround in China-US relations any time soon. And it would not be surprising if the Beijing Winter Olympics becomes a place to verify such tensions. In other words, if the leaders of the US and some of their allies don't come to Beijing, it doesn't constitute any new information at all. Of course, their presence is a good thing at the level of international sports events, an encouragement and comfort for their own athletes, and a positive gesture to the overall interest. However, their absence will not exert any pressure on China.

Pelosi and her like, whose political career grew up during the Cold War era, have become muddy-headed. She still believes that whether the US leader will attend Beijing Winter Olympics or not will have an overall impact on its success. This is narcissistic. The era when the US' act can shape the attitude of the international community is long over.

Does coming to Beijing to attend the Winter Games equal with losing the right to talk about human rights? This is ridiculous. In our view, the US has lost qualification to talk about human rights. 

The US' racial issues are in a mess. Many innocent Americans die of mass shooting every year, and the COVID-19 epidemic has claimed nearly 600,000 lives in the US. The US has also refused to put pressure on Israel to stop attacks on Gaza and also obstructed the UN Security Council from passing relevant resolutions. Does the US think it still has the "moral authority" to talk about human rights?

The US has seriously tarnished the term "human rights." It has turned this concept into a hypocritical gesture that is not about humanity and completely serves geopolitics. Xinjiang is a human rights battle that the US cannot win. The anti-terrorism and de-radicalization in Xinjiang has been proceeding smoothly. The facts there will increasingly make the world see that the US has told a big lie and it will suffer a devastating defeat in this moral gamble.

The Beijing Winter Olympics will not be a card for the US. It will succeed as long as it is held. Whether the US supports it or not cannot decide the overall appearance of the Winter Games. If the US wants to test how much its dominance and influence have shrunk compared to its peak period, then so be it.