深知抵制冬奥会无用的外国政客为何仍一意孤行?

Boycotting the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is pointless. 

抵制2022年北京冬奥会毫无意义。

This isn’t coming from me. It’s from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Its spokesperson said “we oppose Games boycotts because they have been shown to negatively impact athletes while not effectively addressing global issues.”

这并非我的观点，而是来自美国奥林匹克与残疾人奥林匹克委员会。该委员会发言人表示：“我们反对抵制奥运会。因为事实证明，这样做不仅会对运动员造成负面影响，而且无助于有效解决国际问题。”

One of the arch-boycotters, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself even acknowledged the impracticality of it.

甚至连抵制行动最主要的推动者之一，美国众议院议长南希·佩洛西也认为此举不切实际。

“We cannot proceed as if nothing is wrong about the Olympics going to China. That maybe a fait accompli, it may not be possible to stop that,” Pelosi said.

佩洛西说：“我们不能听之任之，就好像奥运会在中国举办是毫无问题的。但这或许已是既成事实，或许已经无法阻止。”

But people are still doing it relentlessly. We are about 200 days out from the Games and the coverage so far has been about the U.S. and EU passing bills to boycott it or the UK government officials and royals are called not to attend.

但抵制之声仍不绝于耳。距离冬奥会仅剩下200天左右，但相关报道的内容却一直是美国和欧洲通过“抵制决议”或是英国政府官员和皇室成员被要求不能出席。

These actions, the constant hounding of this message knowing that it might not bring about meaningful change, took me back to my school years. I was taught at a political science course that a critical aspect of propaganda is churning out massive amount of content simply to fill the space. If there are enough said on an issue, there wouldn’t be room to fit in anything else.

这些做法，这种明知收效甚微却仍然乐此不疲叫嚣抵制的行为，让我想起我在学生时代学到的知识。我曾在政治课上学到，政治宣传的一个重要特点就是炮制海量内容填充舆论空间。如果针对某一问题的某些讨论足够多，那么其他讨论的空间就会被完全侵占。

And that’s the point of this pointless exercise.

当前这些毫无意义的抵制行动正是遵循了这一套路。

What does the Olympics do other than the sports? It showcases a country’s strength.

除了开展体育竞技外，奥运会还有其他作用吗？有，它能够彰显一个国家的实力。

This one is said to be the most technology-driven ever. It’s likely the first time that 5G tech would be applied on a large scale at a major international sports event. Smart robots will be used to transfer documents, office supplies or sports gears.

本届冬奥会据说是科技含量最高的一届，也可能是首次广泛使用5G技术的大型国际体育赛事。智能机器人将被用于传送文件、办公用品或体育器械。

These strengthen China’s image. Calling for boycott is the cheapest way – in all sense of the word – to undermine it. It’s a PR campaign, really. They try to make people believe in the rhetoric by repeating it enough times and trying to make them the only voice on the issue. Claim monopoly on the discourse.

这些都会提升中国的形象。呼吁抵制绝对是最廉价的破坏中国形象的方法。这其实是一场公关运作。呼吁者们反复运用相同的话术，企图引导人们相信其内容，将自己的观点打造成唯一观点。以此霸占话语权。

But unfortunately for them, that’s about the only thing they can do. Like Pelosi said, it’s not possible to prevent China from holding the Games. Sanctions? China would just sanction right back at them. Also, 60 percent of European companies and two-thirds of American ones want to step-up their investments in China this year.

但“遗憾”的是，对于这些人来说，他们能做的仅限于此。正如佩洛西所说，阻止中国举办冬奥会是不可能的。施加制裁？中国可以对等反击。而且，60%的欧洲企业和三分之二的美国企业今年都希望增加对华投资。

That’s why you are seeing the executives of these countries – presidents, prime ministers – have been very careful on this boycotting drama. The White House said it's not discussing it. Boris Johnson made it clear that he is “instinctively and always have been against sporting boycotts.” Greece’s Prime Minister even accepted the invitation to attend.

正因为如此，这些国家的首脑，比如总统、首相等，在这出抵制闹剧中一直小心谨慎。白宫说目前未就抵制事宜进行讨论；鲍里斯·约翰逊明确表示自己“一向本能地反对就体育赛事发起抵制。”希腊首相甚至接受了出席冬奥会的邀请。

These people are the ones ultimately responsible for their countries’ relationship with China. Other politicians can freely capitalize on a sporting event for their own national ambitions, they can’t. They have to weigh the pros and cons.

这些人都肩负着处理本国对华关系的责任。其他政客可以无所顾忌地利用体育赛事来服务于自己的政治野心，但他们不能。他们需要权衡利弊。

Antagonizing China that gets them no results versus not going with the flow to sustain the relationship? It’s not a hard choice. 

是激怒中国，最终落得两手空空还是不随波逐流，维护对华关系？这并不是艰难的选择。

The boycotts are nothing but white noise. It’s pointless, ineffective and self-damaging. All it can do is to annoy people. And no one likes that. Everyone turns it off after listening to it long enough. 

抵制之声只不过是白噪音，没有任何意义，达不成任何目的，而且也于己无益，唯一的结果只能是惹人嫌弃。没人喜欢这样的噪音。听得太久了，大家自然会选择把它关掉。

推荐阅读：