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Showing posts with label Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. Show all posts
Leading economist Arthur Kroeber looks at how China changed between the Olympics of 2008 and 2022 at the US Council of Foreign Relations. The role of the state, while it has always been strong, did become more emphasis on the economy and business relations, he tells at the forum.
When China won 2015 the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, it was seen as a huge win after the successful 2008 Olympics. But the event has developed into a major headache, and it is not only because of the coronavirus, writers CFR-scholar Ian Johnsonon the CFR website.
Ian Johnson:
The reality is that these games have become yet another burden that China has to bear. In 2008, when Beijing hosted the summer games, a sense of excitement was palpable in Beijing and even in places such as Hong Kong, where many felt proud that China was hosting the world’s biggest sporting event. Contrast that with today, when the city-state’s independent political and cultural scene have been destroyed, as part of Beijing’s intolerance of any pluralism. While many Chinese people are still proud of their country’s accomplishments, the games will be yet another chapter in China’s forever lockdown.
None of this could have been foreseen in 2015. But big events have a way of developing their own dynamic.
The games may go off without a hitch, Xi will gain his third term later this year, and China’s authoritarian turn will seem unstoppable. If that happens, the games may be seen as a sign of China’s ability to forge alliances and stare down global criticism. The leaders who join Xi on the reviewing stand may even become symbolic of a new alliance of authoritarian states that support each other’s undemocratic practices.
But China might not be the master of events. Some athletes might break rules and protest, despite the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government warning against such moves. The pandemic, which the government has so far held at bay, might slip through, and cause a major outbreak, perhaps not in Beijing during the games, but afterwards.
And on some deeper level the games might cause some ordinary Chinese people to wonder why the leadership is fixated on parades and congresses and lockdowns instead of reopening the country and returning it to the conditions that has seen it flourish for the past four decades.
Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok looks at new lifestyle trends among China’s young consumers. With the Olympics around the corner, skiing is one of them, she writes in Jing Daily. “Many luxury brands hope to use the popularity of the Winter Olympics to promote their ski collections.”
Ashley Dudarenok:
With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, cold-weather activities like skiing have become incredibly trendy — both online and offline. In 2021, the search volume for “ski tutorial” on Xiaohongshu increased by 100 percent, year-on-year, having grown significantly for two consecutive years. Aside from the Winter Olympics factor, rising national income and escalating trends in fashion consumption have resulted in ice and snow sports growing from an elite niche pastime to a broad middle-class activity. That should make skiing increasingly popular in the future.
The ski industry is now known as the “Platinum Bonanza” (白金富矿) in China due to its high economic value. But this extreme economic development has helped drive many other industries, including the luxury industry. Because the high cost of ski equipment requires high spending power, luxury goods have a natural audience in ski-related products. Luxury brands have only recently noticed this trend and are now launching ski-related products, which has made this professional sport even more popular.
Many luxury brands hope to use the popularity of the Winter Olympics to promote their ski collections. In September 2021, Prada opened a new Prada on Ice pop-up store in Beijing SKP to sell their exclusive Winter Olympics series. Meanwhile, FENDI launched ski items with spokesperson Jackson Wang while jointly opening a limited-time coffee shop called FENDI in the Changbai Mountain International Tourism Resort.
China is on track to launch its digital e-yuan currency ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, despite major shocks like the possible demise of financial giant Evergrande, says financial expert Winston Maat The Street.
The Street:
On the regulatory front, Winston Ma, a former managing director and head of North America at China Investment Corp., said China seemed to be sticking to its original schedule to officially launch its digital currency (e-CNY) at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.”
“Since [the] People’s Bank of China issued its digital currency white paper in July, China has accelerated the testing of e-CNY,” said Ma., author of “The Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.”
Chinese media reported last week that a PBoC team visited Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics sites to further test e-CNY ATM and mobile payments, in what’s described by PBoC Vice Gov. Fan Yifei as the “final push,” Ma said.
He added that the West finds hard to grasp the idea that China is many years ahead of the US and Europe in developing sovereign digital currencies.
Ma said that China’s launch of e-CNY as government currency, together with El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, “will become important reference cases for all nations stepping into digital assets,” Ma said.
