By Bloomberg News
China’s state-run media used the nation’s gold medal haul at the Paris Olympics — which tied the US total of 40 — as the latest sign that it can rival America on the global stage.
The US and China led all nations in gold medals, doubling Japan’s 20, at the conclusion of the Games on Sunday. It was China’s best performance at an overseas Olympics and its strongest showing against the US since 2008, when it won 48 golds compared with 36 for America.
Inevitably, the results quickly became a political talking point.
“The changes in the Olympic achievements of China and the US should not be viewed in isolation — this shift itself is a reflection of an unstoppable historical trend,” China’s nationalist tabloid Global Times declared in an editorial Monday.
Olympic performances have taken on political interpretations since at least the 1936 Games in Berlin, and likely back to the original inspiration for the event in ancient Greece. The news that China tied for golds was trending at the top of the country’s main social-media website Weibo on Monday, with more than 660 million reads.
Another nationalist Chinese site, Guancha.cn, ran an opinion piece by an elite university professor on the final results from France.
“The Paris Olympics becoming a new area of competition between China and the US deeply reflects the growing confrontation between the two countries in the international arena,” wrote Shen Yi, a professor of international politics at Shanghai’s Fudan University. “Athletics is no longer just a contest of skill and physical strength but has become an important means to display national soft power and maintain international image.”
Outside of China, some media outlets put Team USA ahead of China by counting the total number of medals won. Counting that way puts the US in a clear lead at 126 versus 91 for China. That’s spurred attempts to one-up the US.
Some Chinese internet users argued that two gold medals won respectively by Hong Kong and Taiwan — the latter competing as Chinese Taipei — should be included in China’s tally, taking it to 44 and therefore beating the US.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China but competes under a separate flag, as does the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province.
One of those medals came when Taiwan’s badminton team took the top spot, defeating a Chinese duo heralded as the favorites for the gold. That victory ceremony got limited coverage in China.