The opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Credit: U.S. Army/Wikimedia Commons
Global audiences will turn their eyes to Beijing when the 2022 Winter Olympic Games begin on February 4, thirteen and a half years after China hosted the summer games for the first time.
Despite its recent growth slowdown, China’s economy has changed markedly in the intervening years. Today’s China is four times richer than it was in 2008. Back then, its per capita gross domestic product put it behind countries like Iraq and El Salvador; in 2021, it ranked above Russia and Malaysia.
Yet while China has also advanced on "hard power" measures like military spending and infrastructure, it is now viewed more unfavorably around the world than at any point this century. More than 80 heads of state traveled to Beijing in 2008 for the Olympics; in 2022, ten countries have announced diplomatic boycotts against the Games.
This week, The Wire takes stock of how China has changed between the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2022.
AN OLYMPIC BUILD
The 2008 Olympics catalyzed a mas
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When Ken Wilcox, a former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, moved to Shanghai in 2011, he was optimistic and eager to start up the bank's new joint venture in China. A decade later, however, he is extremely cynical about U.S. business interests in China. While analysts will, rightly, be debating SVB's missteps in the U.S. for the foreseeable future, Wilcox insists the bank's challenges in China should not be overlooked.
The former secretary of state talks about how the Trump administration changed U.S.-China relations; why he accused Beijing of genocide in Xinjiang; and why U.S. politicians should visit Taiwan.
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