Inside the Dragon’s Costume

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was a technological marvel.  It was intended to showcase China’s prowess in hi-technology to the world and, in that, it succeeded admirably.  The ceremony was also intended as a tribute to all the peoples of the world and, in that, it failed miserably.  On the outside, we saw a dazzling dragon dance, but here’s what China looks like inside the costume:

China’s prowess with cameras and cellphone tracking technology is used to surveil and oppress its people.  The Olympic light show was produced with lasers and LED lights. China is pursuing laser technology in order to wage war in space.  The green LED sticks dancers used to evoke images of wavy grass and grain called to mind China’s deliberately engineered famine of the Great Leap Forward during which Chinese people starved to death by the tens of millions.  The entire floor of the Bird’s Nest stadium was turned into a giant LED display screen, which could easily have shown the tanks rolling over the protesters at Tiananmen Square, reducing them to liquid pulp, but that part of China’s inner workings was left out of the ceremony.

As in the opening ceremony to the 2008 Beijing summer games, China’s ’56 Nationalities’ were proudly on display.  This time, they passed the communist Chinese flag in a ritual intended to show they are all united in one nation.  Many were in their traditional native garb.  The entire exercise rang hollow, given the fact that the Tibetan, Hong Kong, Uighur, and all other non-Han  nationalities were there only because China is an imperial power that conquered them by force.  The only authentic note of the exercise occurred when the flag was passed to the Chinese military which then carried it to the flag pole, goose-stepping all the way.  This would be the same military that has killed Indian soldiers on the border and is poised to invade Taiwan.

Later in the ceremony, Chinese schoolkids sang a song.  This brought to mind recent videos showing Chinese children being taught to kill people, as well as a recent Chinese comic book in which a child-hero is praised for burning his landlord in his bed.

Then it was time for the Parade of Nations, the athletes from each country marching with their flag through the stadium.  It was jarring to see Xi Jinping clapping when the Hong Kong athletes paraded by.  But why shouldn’t he clap, now that he is secure in the knowledge it is ‘one country, one system’.  The forced gaiety of the Chinese dancers on each side of the parade is not matched by the people at the margins of Chinese society – the migrant workers who have no hope of advancement, the persecuted house Christians and Falun Gong practitioners some of whom are killed for their organs, the political prisoners forced to labor in a thousand camps, or the children of unwed mothers barred from healthcare and education.

The closing dance was intended as a tribute to the peoples of the world, a ‘unique gathering of friends coming together to celebrate their differences and commonality.’  All different like snowflakes, but all equally targeted in China’s expressly professed dreams of world domination.   Or considered prey for China’s debt-trap diplomacy which has caused two more nations to lose control of national assets in recent weeks – Sri Lanka and Uganda.  John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ was played during this dance – “Imagine there’s no countries… Nothing to kill or die for.”  Really?  Tell it to Tibet and Hong Kong.  It was hard to imagine the closing dance was a gathering of friends given the fact that China is pursuing ethnically-targeted bioweapons to kill non-Chinese.  To China, ‘world peace’ means Communist rule under Han domination.  [Who Are China’s Walking Dead?, an e-book about defectors from the CCP, p. 49]

Speaking of music, excerpts from the ‘Nutcracker’ and other Western classical music were played throughout the ceremony.  Given that China’s rise was only made possible by stealing the intellectual property of other countries, this begs the question:  Did China pay the royalties for using the music, like they were supposed to, or did they steal the music, too?

The final act was the lighting of the Olympic flame by two Chinese athletes. One was a Uighur, said to be personally chosen by Xi Jinping himself.  The choice drew much commentary, none of it favorable. One commentator said Xi was doubling down, telling the outside world to butt out of China’s internal Uighur affairs.  Another commentator said it was done to show there is no genocide and the Uighurs are all happy. It’s hard to imagine being happy when you have a Chinese official stationed at your breakfast table inside your home listening to your every word.

Overall, the opening ceremony was a dazzling display on the outside, but it was not enough to mask the sadness and sorrow that is communist China on the inside for so many people today.

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©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

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