Georgetown University

Washington, D.C.—The Beijing Olympics will be remembered as the largest, most expensive, and most widely watched sporting event of the modern Olympic era. But did China take the opportunity to present itself as a responsible host and emergent international power?

Much like Japan during the 1964 Tokyo Games and South Korea during the 1988 Seoul Games, China had the chance to use the Olympic spotlight to improve its global image, says Victor Cha in his new book, “Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia” (Columbia University Press, 2008).

Georgetown University professor and director of Asian studies Victor Cha explores the significance of sports in international affairs, focusing on how sports are related to political development and its sense of nationhood in Asia.

“The inspiration of the book came from a trip I took as part of the delegation of then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,” says Cha, the former director for Asian Affairs for the National Security Council from 2004 to 2007.

“We were all sitting around the dinner table in Indonesia and the conversation moved to sports … Rice is a huge sports nut, and I was completely floored by how much she knew…she’ll put any ESPN junkie to shame," Cha recalls. "It dawned on me that if someone this powerful knows so much about sports, it has to matter."

Tracking how sport is utilized in foreign relations, Cha focuses on the 2008 Beijing Olympics in particular, predicting that political change was inevitable.

“(The role of sports in the world) is a timely and relevant question given that in August 2008, the biggest country in the world hosted one of the world’s biggest sporting events – the Beijing Olympics,” Cha writes.

Before hosting the Olympics, China faced extreme scrutiny on issues of counter proliferation, global warming and free trade. But China’s leaders focused on making the 2008 Summer Games the biggest, most successful Olympics in history to showcase the country’s power and growth.

In the face of international pressure, Cha believes the Games prompted long-lasting changes in China, starting with the environment, which was positively altered because of the 200 million trees planted to soak up carbon dioxide. China also altered its policies on Burma and Darfur, Sudan, something Cha believes wouldn’t have happened outside of the Olympic spotlight.

“There is no denying that China is in a different place in terms of its identity, diplomacy and politics after the 2008 Olympics … and I hold out more hope for change in China beyond the tactical and temporary,” writes Cha. “This basic fact underlines the larger message of how sport – a variable we normally do not think about in world affairs – is more than just a game.”

Looking beyond the Beijing Olympics, Cha examines how sports have been used to engineer diplomatic breakthroughs, such as the "pingpong diplomacy" between the United States and China in the 1970s. China invited Americans into the country for the first time in decades and athletes competed in table tennis. The events contributed to President Nixon visiting China and the country opening up to the West.

"This is a thematically strong and informative book,” says Andrew J. Nathan at Columbia University. “As Victor D. Cha shows, sport is not just sport. Sport both expresses and influences some of the most dramatic developments in society and politics."

“Sport matters in world politics because it can create diplomatic breakthroughs (or breakdowns) in ways unanticipated by regular diplomacy,” Cha concludes. “After reading this book, you will still love sports for its own sake, but you will hopefully gain appreciation of how sport matters beyond the final score.”

About the Author

Victor Cha is director of Asian studies and holds the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Cha served as the director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council from 2004 to 2007 and was also deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks from 2006 to 2007. Cha is the award-winning author of Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, year?) and co-author of Nuclear North Korea (Columbia University Press, 2003).

About Georgetown University

Georgetown University is the oldest and largest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in Washington, DC, Doha, Qatar and around the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.