Whenever Chinese athletes have been accused of doping in past years, the government has mobilized its propaganda machine of state-run newspapers, television commentators and social media accounts to defend the athletes and deflect criticism of the Chinese sports system.
This time, facing Rivals’ anger and cover up Implications When China learned that 23 of its elite swimmers had tested positive for banned drugs before competing in the 2021 Olympics, it took a different approach: It remained silent.
Although this issue has been widely discussed abroad, Including Congress Last week, domestic media coverage was limited to a handful of brief official statements, and censors have meticulously scrutinized and restricted online discussion of the controversy — a level of scrutiny experts say is rare on all but the most sensitive political topics.
Experts say the change in strategy reflects the risks facing China in the weeks before the Paris Olympics. Eleven of the 23 swimmers who tested positive in 2021 have been selected for the Paris team. Swimming is one of China’s most watched sports, and Beijing has invested heavily over decades to turn the country into an Olympic powerhouse.
China, which has denied the allegations of wrongdoing, has long sought to clean up its sports industry, having stepped up testing after doping scandals in the 1990s and early 2000s. The allegations of a cover-up are deeply embarrassing for China, because of the outsize role that sports competitions play in boosting the image of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
“The fact that this matter has been largely unreported in the Chinese media is very different from other previous cases where Chinese athletes have been accused of doping,” said Haozhou Pu, an associate professor at the University of Dayton who studies Chinese sports.
Mr. Pu said that what officials want most is this story Reported The New York Times report in April died down before the Olympics so as not to distract the Chinese public or the Chinese swimming team, which Pu said may explain China’s restrained response.
“No news can also be good news,” Pu Zhiqiang said.
In 2018, China’s most famous swimmer, Sun Yang, was accused of doping, and state media Review the fairness of the investigation and Wide coverageand Social media users Hundreds of thousands of comments were allowed to be left expressing support for Mr Sun.
By contrast, state media coverage of the 23 swimmers has been largely limited to official rhetoric. Chinese authorities have said the swimmers tested positive in 2021 because they ingested trace amounts of banned substances in contaminated food, an explanation that some experts have questioned. The swimmers themselves have not commented publicly.
Chinese news media have carried statements from China’s Foreign Ministry saying that China has a zero-tolerance policy on doping, and China’s anti-doping agency, the China Anti-Doping Agency, has disputed the New York Times report, accusing the newspaper of violating “media ethics.” But there was one exception, when the Communist Party newspaper Global Times published an editorial accusing competitors of deliberately “manipulating the doping issue” and “smearing Chinese swimming.”
On Weibo, a Chinese social media platform similar to X, discussion of the matter also appears to be heavily censored. Searches for terms such as “doping,” “drug testing,” “banned drugs,” “doping swimming,” and “Chinese swimming team” mostly turn up Chinese news articles, all featuring official statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the China Anti-Doping Agency.
As recently as 2022, online censors allowed Weibo users to support Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Lü Xiaojun, who was banned for doping. Many Chinese social media users accused “Westerners” of framing Lü Xiaojun.
More notably, in 2012, Chinese official media Start defending Teen star Ye Shiwen broke the 400m individual medley record to win the London Olympics. Some people think she Possible use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Ye Shiwen, then 16, has never tested positive, and many in China find the allegations outrageous. Chinese state television praised her for withstanding the “humiliation” of “psychologically unbalanced Western media.” (Ye Shiwen was not among the 23 swimmers; she will compete in the Paris Olympics next month.)
Xiao Qiang, an expert on Chinese censorship at the University of California, Berkeley, said the level of censorship surrounding the current controversy over the 23 swimmers was similar to that surrounding discussions of more sensitive topics, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters and elections in Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a de facto independent democratic island.
He noted that this also appeared to be the first time censors had imposed a blanket ban on online comments critical of an athlete accused of doping. Previously, comments expressing dissatisfaction with athletes were sometimes ignored, such as Sun Yang, a highly controversial figure who some Chinese netizens believe is arrogant and should be banned for doping.
The scandal comes at an inopportune time for China’s top sports authority, the General Administration of Sport, which oversees the Chinese Olympic Committee. In May, China announced that former General Administration of Sport director Gou Zhongwen was under investigation for corruption.
China’s official explanation for the positive test results may cause the Chinese public to question the ability of swimming officials to manage athletes.
China Anti-Doping Agency claims the 23 swimmers were unknowingly contaminated with a banned drug called trimetazidine (TMZ), which is used to treat heart disease patients and can also help athletes improve endurance and speed up recovery times. China Anti-Doping Agency said the swimmers ingested TMZ through contaminated food in the hotel kitchen. But the agency did not explain how the substance ended up on the athletes’ plates.
U.S. officials and other experts, citing rules and regulations, say the swimmers should be banned or publicly identified pending further investigation. They say the failure to do so is due to Chinese sports officials, swimming’s international governing body, the World Swimming Federation, and the World Anti-Doping Agency, a Montreal-based global body that oversees national drug-testing programs.
This month, The Times revealed Three of the 23 swimmers had tested positive for another performance-enhancing drug several years earlier. They also avoided being identified or banned.
The World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that three swimmers tested positive for “trace amounts” of a banned substance, clenbuterol, in their systems. Clenbuterol is a drug commonly found in meat in countries such as China that helps athletes increase muscle growth and burn fat. WADA said the three swimmers were contaminated by tainted food but did not explain why China did not comply with regulations requiring them to disclose their positive test results.
Wang Xiaoling and John Liu Contributed reporting.
