China’s state propaganda agency Global Times The French government on Monday mocked French culture’s “relaxedness” and blamed it for a series of mistakes at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, including when Olympic organisers confused North and South Korea and got athletes’ names wrong on official social media accounts.
The Paris Olympics were widely condemned in the West on Friday for its opening ceremony featuring pagan imagery and sexually inappropriate content that was interpreted as a deliberate insult to Christians. But in South Korea, viewers were outraged when their country’s delegation was introduced at the ceremony as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the official name of communist North Korea, and when the Olympics’ social media accounts posted a blurred photo of the country’s flag. North and South Korea have been at war for 74 years, making the gaffe an international issue that will require diplomatic efforts.
Models and drag queens walk in a fashion show during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics on a bridge over the Seine River in Paris, France, on July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
But beyond the political issues, the Olympics have faced a number of challenges, including the postponement of the games due to human waste pollution in the Seine and reports that athletes have vacated the Olympic Village after environmentalists pressured them to refuse to use air conditioning, with some even bringing their own.
of Global Times Anonymous “Chinese netizens” argued that this apparent lack of organization and tact is a product of French culture, not a failing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), nor a persistent problem across multiple rounds of the Olympics, including the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
of Times Claimed:
The repeated mistakes of presenting the wrong South Korean flag at the ongoing Paris Olympics have infuriated South Koreans, but Chinese netizens are joking that it is a sign of the French people’s “relaxed attitude,” which is romantic, easy-going and calm.
“In fact, the unreliable French organizing committee sometimes makes mistakes about other countries as well, so it’s not actually targeting South Korea,” the column continued, also noting that the committee mistakenly identified an Argentine swimmer as Chinese, “to her great surprise and embarrassment.”
“Given the many mistakes and embarrassing moments that occurred during the Paris Olympics, many Chinese netizens joked that such incidents demonstrate the French people’s commendable ‘relaxedness’,” the column concluded. “According to China Central Television’s live coverage of the opening ceremony, with less than two hours left until the start of the opening ceremony’s red carpet event, the red carpet had not yet been fully laid out.”
“Compared to the well-prepared Olympics, the Paris Olympics showed the openness, freedom and tolerance of the French people,” commented a Chinese netizen. Global Times Assumed.
Using words like “praiseworthy” but without specifically citing the Beijing Olympics as a counterexample, Chinese state media appears to be mocking the French for lacking hard work and attention to detail, an attitude state newspapers have adopted in the past. For example, in 2018: Global Times It published an editorial criticizing the culture of Brazil, host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, as inferior to that of the Han Chinese.
“Distinguishing between development based on culture may sound like racism, but live in Brazil for a while and you’ll understand the answer,” a column published at the time argued that Brazilian culture doesn’t allow for development. “Brazilians are not as industrious or willing to work as hard as the Chinese, and they don’t value saving for the next generation as the Chinese do. And yet they demand the same welfare and benefits as people in developed countries.”
China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and has maintained friendly relations with the Chinese Communist Party under both the current government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the recent conservative government of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Similarly, China maintains close ties with Paris, the site of the recent visit of genocidal dictator Xi Jinping to France, but these ties are apparently insufficient to limit the biased commentary of the pro-government media.
Moments marking the 60th anniversary of people-to-people diplomacy between the people of the French Republic and China, the Troisièmes visit to France,
President Xi Jinping,
welcome! pic.twitter.com/DJu5RhKWq6
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 6, 2024
To the extent Global Times The paper has been critical of the Paris Olympics while praising the Chinese government. In another article on Monday, the state media outlet argued that China’s manufacturing industry, which is fueled by intellectual property theft and slavery, is the real star of the Olympics.
“Observers said the injection of high-tech materials was the latest example of Chinese companies’ improving manufacturing capabilities, along with value for money, flexibility and first-class service,” the article said. ClaimedFeaturing table tennis balls and other sporting goods made in China.
“High-quality Chinese products will provide technical and service support to the Paris Olympics, making the events more spectacular both visually and technologically,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning was quoted as saying.
China has hosted the Olympics twice before: the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics, both in Beijing. The latter games were mired in controversy as China is the leader of the world’s largest genocide against the Uighur people in East Turkestan, as well as being the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. killed The 2022 Olympics began in the shadow of a massive lockdown imposed by the Communist Party, confining Xi’an’s 13 million residents to their homes to contain the virus.
Related — Survivor of Chinese concentration camps: I saw people tortured for denying that Xi Jinping is God
Matt Purdy/Breitbart News
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were also marred by the reappearance of Wimbledon champion Peng Shuai, who disappeared shortly before the games after accusing Olympic organizer and Communist Party elite Zhang Gaoli of raping her. Peng turned up at the games to cheer on Chinese athletes and give a bizarre interview to a French newspaper. L’Equipe In it, she denied making the accusations under the watchful eye of party chaperones and insisted she had never disappeared, but was not free to appear in the weeks after posting her accusations online.
