Despite the American frowns, world leaders flock to Beijing Winter Olympics

American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, in his work titled ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order’, hypothesized a new understanding of the post-Cold War global order. He has posited that conflict will develop between civilizations, and people will find cohesion within the boundaries of different civilizations in the new world order. Huntington has divided the world into eight ‘major’ civilizations: Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, Western, African, Hindu, Orthodox, and Latin American.

In line with the new understanding of Huntington, the United States, the self-proclaimed custodian of Western civilization, first targeted Islamic civilization as the most potent threat to the West. The US and its allies fought a long war on terror and razed many promising Muslim countries to the ground. Thus they thwarted the possible rise of Islamic civilization.

Now the US has targeted China as the superpower is anxious about the challenge posed to its supremacy by Chinese civilization. The US and its allies have, therefore, started an all-out, but undeclared, war against China to damage its rise on the global stage.

For the same reason, the allies never buy time to stand in the way of possible successes of China. They spare no efforts to spoil the progress of the East Asian nation.

As part of their all-out war to cripple China, the allies have long been trying to mar the successful organization of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by China. The US and a handful of its allies have unilaterally claimed not to send any officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, however China has made it clear that it never invited the US to the Olympics. This has proven how low the US can stoop in its effort to damage China.

The US has also exerted its leverage on different countries to follow its suit, but the world has not joined the US in the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the US has eventually been sidelined over the issue in the global community.

Despite the American frowns and wild surge of Omicron infections, more than 30 foreign heads of state, heads of government, members of the royal family, and heads of international organizations joined Chinese President Xi Jinping at the spectacular opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Beijing on Friday evening.

The heads of state, heads of government, and members of the royal family including six from Europe, five from Central Asia, three from the Middle East, two from South America, and others from Asia, the Pacific, and Africa graced the opening ceremony.

The world leaders including Presidents of Russia, Egypt, Serbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan attended the fabulous ceremony. The King of Cambodia, Prime Ministers of Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Prince of Monaco, Princess of Thailand, Emir of Qatar, and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi also joined the star-studded ceremony.

In addition, Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also attended the heavyweight event.

Secretary-General of the UN, President of the UNGA, Director-General of the WHO, Secretary-General of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, president of New Development Bank, Secretary-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization were among the heads of the international organizations to adorn the ceremony.

Many more leaders of foreign countries and international organizations also conveyed their wish that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be a complete success.

Analysts are of the view that the presence of such a large scale of foreign leaders is an unprecedented offline gathering of top leaders since the beginning of the pandemic. They believe that the gathering highlights China's capacity to unify others during a challenging time, which also signals the widely shared support and expectations of the global community for the Games and completely defies the trivial voices of the US-led Western clique in calling for a ‘diplomatic boycott.’

I firmly believe that such a huge gathering of global leaders, despite the US pressure and surge of Omicron infections, is an outcome of the calculative and mature diplomacy of China. The Chinese policy of putting humanity first and extending its helping hands towards the world during the struggles of the pandemic has paid off well, and world leaders have finally rallied behind President Xi Jinping against all odds and difficulties.

These leaders have also showcased their sincerity in firmly supporting China and the Olympic Games. The gathering is also a strong response to the tactics played by the US on calling for a ‘boycott’ of the Games, highlighting the failure and unpopularity of the US and its boycott diplomacy. In my view, the international community has recognized and supported China's foreign policy and multilateralism by rallying behind the Chinese president at the ceremony.

Md Enamul Hassan is a news editor at the China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing, China 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of People’s Daily Online.