Cheating Yourself - Foul Play in China’s Sporting Circles

In modern society professional sports are big business and as such, the pressure on athletes to be victorious is greater than ever. This desire to defeat all rivals at any cost can sometimes lead professional sportsmen and women to bend or break the rules in search of competitive advantage. Doping, match-fixing, bribery and other forms of corruption are global problems that are experienced by all areas of professional sports at one stage or another. China is no different and has had its fair share of scandals over the years, regarding not just corruption allegations but also reported ill-treatment of young athletes. However, as the country rises to a more prominent role in global society, people begin to take more notice of things like foul play, and what governmental bodies do to counter it.

Photo: nowpublic.com

Gymnastics and foreign objection

Possibly the most famous of all Chinese corruption scandals is that of the allegations that several competitors in the Olympic gymnastic events were underage. An investigation into the age of Dong Fangxiao (董芳霄) at the 2000 Sydney games rumbled on for some time before stripping her of her bronze medal after finding she was, in fact, only 14. Miss Dong's career ended in 2002, at the age of 16, after multiple injuries and surgery. The scandal reared its ugly head again during the Beijing Olympics. Two gold medal-winning Chinese female gymnasts, He Kexin (何可欣) and Jiang Yuyan (江钰源), were rumoured to be only 14 years old, below the official age requirement of 16. During the scandal, official documents and media reports appeared to corroborate that the girls were underage. Bela Károlyi, a Romanian gymnastics coach, referred to the girls as "half-people". However, a subsequent investigation by the International Olympics Committee cleared China of any wrongdoing.

Even before the start of the Beijing Olympics, Chinese gymnastics was the subject of an international furore. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Count Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, commented on concerns aired on the BBC by Sir Matthew Pinsent. Sir Matthew said he had witnessed young children in China being physically abused by their gymnastics supervisors. Mr Rogge called for an investigation into the accusations by Sir Pinsent (four-times Olympic rowing champion, a former pupil at Eton and one-time IOC member) but he also said that the rower's views had to be put into a cultural context, insisting the issue should not be "exaggerated" or "blown up".

Mr Rogge said: "While it is not for us to condone what might not be acceptable, you also have to look at the cultural factor. I don't need to remind you of the fact that physical punishment was still in use in English public schools until, I believe, the 1970s.”

"This is something your society [in England] has overcome. Your society has decided that there will be no physical punishment in the UK, and I approve of that. But it was not so long ago that it was being used. So you have to compare cultural systems." Referring to China, he added: "Let's not exaggerate. There is no torture. I would say that the things that have been reported by Matthew are not so different to what happened in schools 30 years ago”.

Winning is everything

It would seem that both of these scandals (one of which was very much present in China and the latter perhaps more a concern of foreigners) stem from a desire to be the best. As China contemplates its rise on the global stage, there are certain areas of international competition which can be considered barometers of social and economic success.The US invests large amounts of money into sporting infrastructure and as a result reaps the rewards in the Olympic medal tables. It is a matter of national pride for most countries to see how high they rank in those tables, particularly in events that are considered national pastimes. The UK for example is particularly strong in the sailing events, while countries like the US traditionally do well in swimming and track. Failing to top the tables for these favoured events is often a national disaster which prompts much soul-searching and finger-pointing.

Of course, for events considered strong areas for more than one powerful nation, the stakes are much higher and the viewing much more entertaining. Gymnastics is one such area; where both America and China have extremely talented and successful teams. As a result of this, is it any surprise that some individuals within the vast and often labyrinthine regulatory organisations take it upon themselves to cut corners when the face of the nation is at stake?

Furthermore, this also highlights (as Rogge said) the cultural differences. Growing up in Britain, I often felt many people there are of the philosophy that 'it's taking part that counts', particularly where children are concerned. China and America by contrast, appear to be of the 'only first is good enough' mentality. American scholarships to top universities based on sporting prowess, or the Chinese proclivity for suddenly taking national interest in sports that Chinese athletes are excelling in (Li Na winning the French open) are perhaps good examples of this attitude.

Diving for guanxi

Another example of sporting corruption and one which highlights the role of guanxi in some scandals is the case of Zhou Jihong (周继红). The integrity of the sport's biggest domestic competition in 2009 was shaken when a referee quit working the national games diving events after claiming the results were all fixed. According to domestic media reports, the judge said she could no longer take part in a competition that she asserted was a complete sham. The official reason for her resignation was illness.

"I am leaving early, not only because I am sick, but also because I'm fed up with the shadiness in diving this year," said the referee, given the pseudonym 'Ma Ming' by the media. "To my surprise, all of the gold medals are decided internally ahead of time."

'Ma Ming' gave no concrete evidence for the allegations, but she did tell reporters on October 10th which athletes would win the next four gold medals, and to everyone's surprise all of her picks were correct.

The woman behind the fixed results, according to 'Ma', was Zhou Jihong, the head of the diving federation and deputy director for Chinese aquatics. According to the ex-judge, Zhou “has enough power to subtly let her wishes be known and then sit back and watch the results play out the way she desired...if she so much as slightly reveals her intentions, someone will take care of everything for her. As an official at these national games, I have more than once heard another referee say: 'This gold medal the leader already decided must be given to so-and-so.' Currently in the Chinese diving world, only Zhou Jihong can make these decisions."

In a national games press conference, Zhou insisted that the judge quit only because of illness and was quick to dismiss the allegations:

"Whether it's international competition, or Olympics, world championships, whatever, before the competition there are always predictions. It is normal for some of these predictions to come true."

In many ways Zhou Jihong did little overtly that would stand up in a court of law or other high-level investigation into her crimes. Such a thing seems to have been made possible by her high status and large web of powerful connections. The idea of guanxi is an integral part of Chinese society and has been for many hundreds of years. It is however one of the primary contributors to the aforementioned style of corruption which appears not just in sports but in many other aspects of society. While the government has made some headway in many areas of corruption throughout sport, finding a way to deal with this aspect of the problem will be a difficult challenge for some time to come.

And this, all this, without a single word for the massive corruption scandals plaguing the sport of football in China. Yes, the government certainly has a lot on its plate…
 

Related links
The Birth and Death of China's Civilian-Run Corruption Reporting Websites
China's Netizens Lead the Anti-Corruption Fight
The Art of Guanxi: Benefits, Pitfalls & The Lifetime Debt of Favours