Hwang Dae-heon, a skater of the Korean national team, competes with two Chinese skaters in the semifinals of the men's 1,000m short track speed skating at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
Photo Credit: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220208000210
At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, many biased judgments in games have raised concerns. It became a global issue since excessive home-field advantages to the Chinese national team were internationally disclosed. The Korean national team was one of the teams affected by such a judgment, deepening anti-China sentiment among Koreans. At the same time, the relationship between Korea and Japan has also been worsened by Japan’s inappropriate attitude to the Korean national team. With the emergence of this conflict, in which Japan has considered Korea’s bitter attitude toward China’ absurd’, Japan has once again been reminded of the ongoing relational conflict between Korea and Japan.
During the Beijing 2022 Olympics, biased judgments infuriated the whole world. One such event was the short track speed skating 1000m game. Korean speed skaters Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo couldn’t participate in the final round because they were unfairly disqualified. However, Chinese skaters Rei Ziwei and Li Wenlong got a high ranking. Also, other national teams, such as Canada and Hungary, were disqualified from short-track speed skating as well. In the case of the ski jump, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Norway national teams were all disqualified due to uniform length. The tolerance between uniforms and bodies set by the International Ski Federation (FIS) is 1 to 3 centimeters for men and 2 to 4 centimeters for women. It is hard to check the exact length, so they could not find a problem with their uniform. However, there were two major problems regarding such disqualification. First, they had previously proceeded with individual games with the same uniform but were disqualified when they finished team games. If the judges had thought there was a problem with the uniform, they would have had to disqualify players before the game. However, they did so after the games had already finished.
Several countries had previously boycotted before the Beijing Olympics, and after the Olympics, more countries joined in boycotting China. Nevertheless, China being one of the most powerful countries, many countries have not participated. Moreover, China stated it would retaliate if governments were to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. With these circumstances, the trust between the countries that participated in the Olympic Games and China has been weakened even more.
Other countries did not distance themselves from China because they needed to show how they felt about the biased judgment on social media. In Korea, the SBS Olympic broadcast didn’t show the medal ceremony and rather broadcasted the worst fouls that China has done in the history of the Olympic Games. Besides, the Hungarian news revealed biased judgment after the Hungarian national team was unfairly disqualified. People worldwide on various social media platforms have expressed their stances regarding the issues. By the biased judgment in the Beijing Olympics, Korea’s anti-China sentiment, which has started from economic retaliation from Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and China’s imitations of Korean products and media, formed more deeply than before.
Japan was one of the countries that had high anti-China sentiment. However, it showed the anti-Korean sentiment, taking sides with China, during the Beijing 2022 Olympics as it has been in an even worse relationship with Korea. When the Korean broadcast offered the fouls that China did until the 2022 Olympics, Japan made a video that showed the fouls Korea did to Japan. Even more, they showed insulting behavior, such as leaving a vomiting emoji on the Korean national team’s Instagram page. Japan’s behaviors could aggravate the international relations between Korea and Japan; however, they did not stop them and started to fuel the Liancourt Rocks issue, which has been a prolonged dispute between Korea and Japan for centuries. Korea has attempted to prove that Liancourt Rocks are Korean territory with clear historical and geographical evidence, which Japan has continuously ignored. After the Beijing Olympics issue, Japan claimed that Korea showed brazenness in criticizing China’s judgments for denying that Liancourt Rocks are Japanese territory.
The emerging controversy of the biased judgment in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics not only aroused the global sentiment against China but also became the catalyst of the conflict-filled history of Korea and Japan. It seems noticeable that Japan shows such actions by condemning and insulting the Korean team with the excuse of previous Korea-Japan disputes. However, it is clear that dealing with this recent problem from an objective perspective to reasonably find a proper solution seems vital for preventing potential deterioration in relations between two nations. Furthermore, constant public attention is essential to avoid unnecessary conflict in international relations.
Written by Sojung Kim | Staff Writer
Revised by Yu Bin Kwon | Managing Editor
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