The Olympic Tower in Beijing. Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo
The pandemic-afflicted Tokyo Olympic Games have begun at last. China has sent its largest ever delegation to the event this year, with over 400 athletes, and will likely bring home another huge tally of medals.
But that’s not the only way that representatives from China will make waves at the Games: Chinese brands will feature more prominently than at any Olympics since Beijing served as the host in 2008. The Chinese internet behemoth Alibaba and the dairy producer Mengniu are among the lead sponsors for the Tokyo games and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Marketing sponsorships are a big deal for Olympic finances, accounting for more than half of the $6.7 billion revenue Tokyo’s organizing committee has budgeted for. But not all sponsorships are made equal, with each Games typically offering several sponsorship tiers. At the Tokyo Games, there are 15 “top” (The Olympic Partner) sponsors — the most expensive tier — including familiar names such as Toyota, Visa
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On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with Wang Wentao, the Chinese Commerce Minister, in Washington. It marked the first cabinet-level meeting in Washington between the U.S. and China during the Biden administration, and it was a signal of the Commerce Department’s increasingly central role in the current U.S.-China relationship. Usually, the Commerce Department is far from the center of anything, but as Katrina Northrop reports, the department is uniquely suited to address the China challenge.
The lawyer and author talks about the attack on a train in the 1920s which created an international incident, the rise of the Communist Party and the conditions for foreign media in China today.
