Column: Beijing Olympics Cause Burps of Moral Equivalence

Anyone under 30 today has no idea what it was like to live in America during the Cold War, and that includes the reflexive tendency of liberals and leftists to insist repeatedly that we really shouldn’t lecture the authoritarians in the Soviet Union or China for gross abuses of human rights, because the United States isn’t much different.

In 1989, when the Berlin Wall was toppled, USA Today founder Al Neuharth was lecturing “There is little more logic to Lithuania being permitted to unilaterally and unlawfully declare its independence from the USSR than there would be for Texas to secede from the USA.” In 1990, NBC reporter Bob Abernethy explained “Congress changed the Soviet Constitution to permit limited private ownership of small factories, although laws remain against exploitation of everyone else.”

It was a regrettable choice to give the 2022 Winter Olympics to China. This caused an acid reflux in geopolitical reality.

Meet the Press Chuck Todd, Chuck Todd’s host implied that we should not criticize China because of the January 6th riot. “I can’t help but wonder about our inability to get the world to follow us on a diplomatic boycott of China on something that’s fundamental about sort of what we believe should be freedom bigger than financial ties. It makes me think, well maybe the example of our democracy is not so good.”  

Todd didn’t lower his standards to suggest that the Biden/Blinken team was responsible for the inability to obtain a larger diplomatic boycott. You can blame the rioters.

On CNN (and then rebroadcast on PBS), TV host Christiane Amanpour pressed Republican Sen. Todd Young on his op-ed strongly calling out China: “A million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz are locked away in gulags. The women are tortured using electric batons and forced to have abortions. Taiwan’s sovereignty has been constantly threatened. Hong Kong’s democracy has been enslaved.”

Amanpour somehow thought she could compare this to American politics, that some “from abroad” might tell us “hold on a second, America’s preaching democracy to us, but yet, you know, treating democracy rather cavalierly.” Then she brought up the Republican National Committee condemning Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for helping the Democrats crack down on “legitimate political discourse” on January 6.

It is illegal to riot. How can journalists who claim to be educated compare a five-hour riot with a million Chinese citizens held for many years in gulags, Young condemned the riot, and she shamed Young for making the comparison. Amanpour buckled and said “you’re absolutely right” that it’s not like the gulags. Why would you want to eat that rubbish?

J.A. Adande, ex-ESPN journalist and journalism professor was next. Adande, who appeared on ESPN’s Around the Horn show and compared the gulags to – get this – American police brutality and red states passing laws with allegedly outrageous impositions like asking for voter ID. “Who are we to criticize China’s human rights record when we have ongoing attacks by the agents of the state against unarmed citizens, and we’ve got assaults on the voting rights of our people of color in various states in this country.”

No one would ever catch this educator in a “Uyghur Lives Matter” T-shirt.

This absurd exercise in rhetorical gymnastics is unlikely to last more than a week. However, the Chinese communists will continue to rule the country and cause injustices. All these wealthy professors and journalists can see how they would like to continue enjoying the fruits of this failing democracy throughout their entire lives.