The China You Won’t See during the Winter Olympics

The Chinese Communist Party — its international reputation having suffered a blow as a result of the Covid pandemic, its human-rights abuses, and its saber-rattling — hopes to score a massive propaganda victory in the coming weeks as thousands of athletes from 90 countries converge on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The Games, which will formally kick off with the opening ceremony today, are being held within a “closed loop” accessible to only 60,000 people amid stringent public-health measures.

China has reason to be confident in its ability to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community. Perpetration of mass atrocities were not enough to persuade the International Olympic Committee to move the event. The U.S. — in addition to the U.K., Canada, Australia, Lithuania, and a handful of others — is diplomatically boycotting but has stopped short of a hard boycott of the actual sporting events, and President Biden will still watch the Olympics.