Preface: Geopolitical Games – Beijing 2008

The Shorter Oxford Dictionary defines Geopolitics as political relations between states as influenced by geography but also as a theory which regards the state as an organism with powers independent of and superior to those of its constituent groups or individuals. [4] Both meanings are secreted in the minatory comment by He Zhenliang, Chairman of the IOC Commission for the Culture of Olympic Education that the most significant outcome of the Beijing Games will be ‘the elevation of our Chinese people’s self-confidence and sense of pride’. [5] This assertion is not hard to understand. China’s ‘century of humiliation’ at the hands of first the West and then Japan remains a traumatic experience and arguably ‘has been a driving force . . . behind China’s exertions to press for global status in economics, in science and technology, in global politics and in sport.’ [6] Beijing 2008 is to assist the restoration of China’s national greatness through the erasing of the memory of a humbled, reduced and subordinate people and its replacement with a confident, risen and superordinate people: physical effort twisted into skeins of political action. Post 1949 this has been a designated task: ‘from the moment of the birth of the ‘‘New China’’’, sport has been . . . a means of internal and external projection illustrating the capacity of the system and people to more than hold their own with those of other nations. In short, sport has been the ‘stage’ on which the Chinese perform in pursuit of world recognition, respect and esteem.’ [7] New times have given new purpose to this performance as resources in recent decades have allowed stress to be placed on allusive winning ‘declamations’ in the global theatre of sport. Beijing 2008 will be the loudest. The International Journal of the History of Sport Vol. 25, No. 7, June 2008, 751 – 757