Reluctant Appealer: China's Responses to Controversial Judgements at London 2012

Abstract

A controversial judgement denotes that a decision made by referees is deemed to involve errors and those errors result in the athlete being disqualified or being given unreasonable scores in the match. While the athletes from other parts of the world were eager to raise appeals against controversial judgements at London 2012, those from China were reluctant. The argument here is that the reluctance was a duty of the Chinese Olympic delegation with the aim of relieving the concern of the international society that China was likely to become the Middle Kingdom in the Pacific Rim. A non-confrontational China at London 2012 was considered a placatory diplomatic gesture by the Chinese authorities.