The Olympics showcase the need for a better politics amid efforts to express solidarity with all in need.

The Beijing Winter Olympics are set against a backdrop of tension between the U.S. and China. The Biden administration is carrying out a diplomatic boycott of the Games. Former U.S. senator Claire McCaskill took to Twitter to scold American-born skier Eileen Gu for competing with the Chinese team, saying, “I think it is wrong for an American to compete for China. China represses free speech, is well known for their human rights violations.” Rather than viewing Gu’s move to represent China as a nod to her heritage, too many leaders – both Democrats and Republicans – viewed it as a dalliance with the enemy.

Unfortunately, we live in a political climate defined by “campism,” the idea that you have to side with the ruling classes of either the U.S. or China, with no third position.

Into this thicket stepped the International Olympic Committee’s U.S. broadcast partner, NBC, and its anchor Mike Tirico. During the opening night of the Games, Tirico spoke some inconvenient truths about this year’s Winter Olympics and the IOC’s decision to nestle in Beijing. He sliced to the core of the issue, saying, “The U.S. government is not here, a diplomatic boycott announced this fall joined by Canada, Great Britain, and Australia citing China’s human rights record and the U.S. government’s declaration that the Chinese Communist Party is guilty of committing genocide on the Uyghur Muslim population in Western Xinjiang region.”

He also pointed out the crackdowns on democracy protests in Hong Kong and nodded toward the idea of “sportswashing,” when a country uses an event like the Olympics to distract from oppressive realities. To be sure, it is a good thing that NBC took on the human-rights elephant in the room.

That said, it’s also hardly a brave topic to broach. Last year, a Pew Research poll found that 67 percent of Americans held negative feelings toward China. This was a remarkable 21-percent increase in only three years. A Gallup poll found that between February 2020 and February 2021, the number who viewed China as their country’s “greatest enemy” more than doubled, from 22 percent to 45 percent.

This enemy-speak has repercussions. Last year, anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 339 percent in the U.S. Under these conditions, Tirico and NBC may well have faced more criticism had they pretended everything was hunky-dory.

As for sportswashing, it must be pointed out that when NBC – which paid a staggering $7.75 billion in 2014 for broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032 – stands up, of course it’s in relation to Beijing. There is sportswashing with every Olympics. Yet NBC didn’t run segments about the realities of favela displacement for the Rio Games in 2016. Last summer, it did not spotlight the ways Fukushima still suffers under the weight of the 2011 nuclear disaster, while the government touted the Tokyo Games as a “recovery Olympics.” Now, when NBC refuses to carry the IOC’s water, it’s because U.S. public opinion matters more.

DAVE ZIRIN is the sports editor of The Nation. JULES BOYKOFF is a professor of political science and author of four books on the Olympic Games.