Might the WTA Finals’ setting cast a pall over the profound symbolism of the most lucrative event in the sport’s history?As Hong Kong marched for an 11th consecutive week in August, 20 miles away a drone floated noiselessly over the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre. It captured coordinated teams of men running across the lush grass-painted lines of a football pitch, but there were no footballs in sight. Instead, dozens of paramilitary vehicles from China’s People’s Armed Police paraded the streets of Shenzhen and settled in the arena. Satellite pictures showed more than 100 sitting tidily around the perimeter of the pitch. The military exercises were widely perceived to be an intimidation tactic, to show what China could do in Hong...
Sticking to the principle of freedom of speech can be uncomfortable when commercial gain in China is at stakeIf you have problems with the term “late-stage capitalism”, I hope you can get behind the alternative “ironicidal capitalism”. This is the bit where democracies are so evolved and self-assured they sell their freedom of speech to totalitarian regimes. I know! But kind of logical, when you think about it. There was basically nothing left to flog.For those who’ve missed the saga of the NBA’s travails in China, have no fear. It isn’t going away any time soon, with last weekend’s development being groups of fans wearing masks and “Stand With Hong Kong” T-shirts standing in protest at the Brooklyn Nets pre-season...
China’s upsurge in fortunes follows the decision to redefine what being a Chinese footballer actually meansChina is a very large country, inhabited by many Chinese. Looking back it seems fair to say Charles de Gaulle was probably right in this assessment, not to say prophetic. In the intervening years China has become even larger. It is inhabited by even more Chinese.To the outsider this vastness can seem a little dizzying. This is the last great wilderness once humans have killed off the rest of them: other humans. China has more than one hundred cities with more than a million inhabitants, cities with their own traditions, infrastructure, hierarchies, artisan coffee stall scenes and endless, unknowable inner lives. China has 250 million...
A billion-dollar deal with Alibaba is just the latest incident in which the International Olympic Committee appears to be violating its own principlesSometimes when they interrogated Xie Yang they sat him on top of a stack of plastic stools. And then, between threats to turn him into an “invalid”, they kicked, punched and head-butted him, blew cigarette smoke in his face and suggested that his wife had better take care when driving. “If you move, we can consider that you attacked a police officer, and we can take whatever steps to deal with you,” he was warned.Xie, a prominent Chinese lawyer who was among around 300 human rights activists detained in July 2015, was also hung from the ceiling and...
The two countries have learned that for all the styling, the schmaltz and the money, football reserves the right to be stubborn and insistently uncontrolledWith the World Cup in Russia looming ever closer, Euro 2016 has already faded into the familiar post-tournament haze, a flip chart of half-remembered moments. Goals from headers. Happy, well-adjusted Icelandic people. Cristiano Ronaldo close-ups. Roy Hodgson in a blazer looking noble and sad. David Guetta grinning and thrusting about behind his DJ plinth like the kind of uncle you have to keep an eye on at Christmas.This week I was also reminded of the posters of smiling, face-painted fans Uefa slapped up around French city centres: huge disembodied mugshots of supposed football supporters from every...