In terms of propaganda, the Olympics got worse than expected.
China’s show has not been as grand and bombastic as previous PR spectacles throughout Olympic history.
Here it has been like when China moves forward its positions step by step in global world trade. If they want world domination? The worst thing is that the question is relevant.
Here, a soldier from bloody battles in an infected border conflict was sent to a leading role as a torchbearer before the opening of the Olympics. It was a clear fuck off finger to the rest of the world. We do what we want.
And here, a Chinese Olympic leader has completely run over an international Olympic champion at a press conference by claiming that information about the misconduct in the country is just lies and fake news.
This is anything but old common propaganda games. In their time, they were at least easy to read in their large scale.
This way that China during the Olympics showed that they do not care about the opinions of the outside world and intend to run their race no matter what, it was worse than expected.
And the Swedish international Olympic champion Gunilla Lindberg was at least right in her famous radio interview from last autumn about China as host of the Olympics. It was then that bridge builder Lindberg saw something no one else saw, that the 2008 Beijing Olympics helped the democratic development in the country.
She was more right when she talked about an Olympics getting the outside world to pay attention to the host country.
Dictatorships are dictatorships even when they do not have major sports competitions.
And it is embarrassing for other parts of society that sport seems to be necessary in the global democracy debate.