What happened on Monday at the Tokyo Olympic Games was shocking. Two Chinese athletes wore badges of Mao Zedong — China’s Communist revolutionary leader and a dictator responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in history — looking very much at ease as they posed in front of dozens of cameras and reporters.

Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi, China’s latest Olympic champions in women’s team sprint, held their gold medals, their smiles unmistakable beneath their masks, seemingly confident that this violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter (which prohibits any “kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda”) would go unnoticed and unpunished.

When I saw the badges of Mao, I suddenly found it hard to breathe. I was not expecting this reminder of China’s history and of the suffering endured by my family. To the athletes, the badges might represent little more than a cultural-revolution-themed style of devotion for Beijing; but to me, it rekindled the painful memory of my father’s tragic childhood. For this badge, once worn by millions across the country, it is still a poignant icon of the brutality of China’s ruling party, 45 years after the Chairman’s death.

Between 1957 and 1959, Mao’s Anti-Rightist Campaign purged at least 550,000 people — including most leading artists and intellectuals. My grandfather, one of the first film makers in China, was brutally persecuted and killed during this very campaign. His films were labelled “poisonous grass” by those carrying out the purge. Eventually, he was sent to a labour camp in far west China to receive “re-education”, where he was forced to do extremely heavy physical works in order to be “reformed” as a new person. He died there, far away from home, due to the lack of food and disease in less than a year.

Thousands of kilometres away, my family only learned about my grandfather’s death months later. There were no remains of my grandfather; nothing to be retrieved — only a notice from the local government.

My father was only four-years-old at the time. He was called “the son of a dog”, a humiliating name for children of “anti-revolutionary criminals”, from the beginning of his dark childhood.

From 1959 to 1961, the Great Chinese Famine caused by Mao’s radical planned economy policy — “The Great Leap Forward” and the “People’s Communes” — killed tens of millions of people, with some estimates putting the death toll as high as thirty million.

In the last decade of Mao’s life, from 1966 to 1976, he launched the Cultural Revolution which helped him to grasp absolute power successfully by means of a nationwide personality cult. But this decade of political catastrophe and persecution destroyed China’s economy, wiped out traditional culture, and saw around two million more innocent Chinese civilians killed. Party officials, teachers, and intellectuals were among those targeted; they were publicly humiliated, beaten, and in some cases murdered or driven to suicide.

During the peak of the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s badges were worn by almost every Chinese as a form of fealty. It was a key symbol of the Mao-cult, and the insignia of this brutal campaign. Young people even pinned the badges directly to their chest muscles and showed off the scars as evidence of loyalty to the Chairman. On the flip-side, a hint of disrespect toward Mao’s image could get people persecuted or imprisoned during these ten years.

In 1966, People’s Daily — the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — published a series of high-profile stories about how Mao’s badges were sent to remote border sentries. The obsession with badges helped Mao establish a god-like image among Chinese people. Mao’s mummified body still lies entombed and on display in Tiananmen Square, embodying, if you like, the despotic stranglehold of the CCP over the nation’s life.

The revival of the use of Mao’s badges has an undeniable political motivation. Chinese President Xi Jinping, regarded as the most powerful figure since Mao, has fully oriented China towards a kind of nationalist fervour and has praised communist ideology throughout the one-hundredth anniversary of the CCP. At the same time, egregious human rights crises, like Xinjiang’s concentration camps and the crackdown on the democratic movement in Hong Kong, have emerged under his watch.

As a China-born citizen who lost members of his family during Mao’s reign of terror, it was traumatic to see those badges being worn during a medal ceremony. It also makes me angry to see young Chinese athletes fail to learn the brutal truth of China’s history. To celebrate with this badge contributes to that ignorance and misleads others. In other words, their decision to wear the Mao badges is a form of political propaganda.

I don’t entirely agree with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) implementation of Rule 50 of its Olympic Charter, prohibiting political demonstrations by athletes. The Olympics are unavoidably political, as long as athletes are there representing their country rather than participating as individuals. And I do believe athletes should have the freedom to express their convictions and to protest against injustice, especially when these expressions of political conviction are in the name of recognising our common humanity. But when the IOC has decided to ban Black Lives Matter apparel, kneeling, the raising of fists, and the LGBTQ flag — all of which aim at greater inclusion and mutual recognition — how can the IOC fail to hold these Chinese athletes to the same standard, especially when the form of propaganda they brazenly displayed symbolises a regime that was committed to terror, intimidation, and death?

The two Chinese athletes, Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi, have used the international stage afforded by the Olympics to engage in shameless political propaganda. They used the occasion of the awarding of their medals to commend the legacy of a tyrant. They used this celebration of the wonder of human diversity to honour the memory of a murderous regime. What they did runs counter to the spirit of the Olympics, to say nothing of a commitment to a common humanity. They should thus bear the full consequences of their deed and be disqualified from their gold medal winning event.

PETITION FROM：

Badiucao is a Chinese Australian political cartoonist, artist, and rights activist. He is regarded as one of China’s most prolific and well-known political cartoonists. He was named one of the recipients of the 2020 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissentby the Human Rights Foundation, and the 2019 Courage In Cartooning Award by Cartoonists Rights Network International. He and his family have been harassed and threatened by Chinese authorities after his 2018 exhibition “Gongle” went on display in Hong Kong.

 

周一，东京奥运会上出现了令人震惊的一幕。两名中国运动员在几十台摄像机和记者面前合影自如，她们佩戴着毛泽东像章，他是中国共产主义革命的领袖，也是历史上犯下一些最严重的人权侵犯行为的独裁者。

钟天使和鲍珊菊是本届奥运会场地自行车女子团体竞速赛的新晋中国冠军。她们手持金牌，口罩背后的笑容清晰可掬，似乎以为这种违反《奥林匹克宪章》第50条规定的行为不会被人发现或受到惩罚。（第50条规定禁止任何“形式的示威或政治、宗教或种族宣传”）。

当我看到毛泽东像章时，顿时呼吸凝滞。我对此始料未及——它残酷地提醒着我中国的历史，以及我的家人所经受的苦痛。

像章的意义对两位运动员来说可能不只是文革式地对北京表达忠心；但对我来说，它重新唤起了我对父亲痛苦的童年悲剧的记忆。

毛泽东像章曾经在中国人人佩戴，但在毛泽东去世45年后的今天，它仍是中国共产党暴政的惨痛标志。

1957年至1959年期间，毛泽东的反右运动至少清洗了55万人，大多数是主要艺术家和知识分子。

我的祖父，一位中国最早的电影制作人，在这场非常运动中遭到残酷迫害至死。

他的作品被运动参与者贴上了“毒草电影”的标签。他最终被送到中国偏远西部的一个劳改营接受“再教育”，被迫从事极为繁重的体力劳动，以“改头换面”成为一个崭新的人。

但不到一年，由于疾病和缺乏食物，祖父便客死异乡。

几千公里之外，家中的亲人在几个月后才收到祖父的死讯——没有遗体，也没有任何遗物，只有当地政府的一份通知。

至此，父亲的黑暗童年就此展开。当时，年仅四岁的他被叫作“狗崽子”，这是一种羞辱“反革命罪犯”子女的称呼。

从1959年到1961年，毛泽东倡议的激进计划经济政策“大跃进”和“人民公社”引发大饥荒，造成数千万人死亡。一些估计认为，当时的死亡人数高达3000万人。

在毛泽东生命的最后十年，从1966年到1976年，他发动了文化大革命。毛泽东通过举国上下对他的个人崇拜，凭借文革掌握了绝对权力。

但这十年的政治灾难和迫害摧毁了中国的经济，抹杀了传统文化，约200万无辜的平民百姓被杀害。

党内官员、教师和知识分子都是被攻击的对象。他们被公开羞辱、殴打，在一些情况下遭遇谋杀或被迫自杀。

在文化大革命高潮，几乎成了每个中国人都佩戴毛泽东像章，并以此作为表达忠诚的方式。它是对毛泽东的个人崇拜和这场残酷运动的关键标志。

一些年轻人甚至把徽章直接扎进胸前的皮肤里，炫耀伤疤，作为对毛主席忠诚的证据。在这十年热潮的另一面，对毛泽东形象的一丝不敬都会招致迫害或监禁。

1966年，中共喉舌《人民日报》高调发表了一系列关于毛泽东像章如何被送到边境哨所的报道。

这种对像章的狂热，帮助毛泽东在中国人民心中塑造了他神化的形象。毛泽东的尸身现仍被安置在天安门广场上，继续见证中共对这个国家的专制扼杀。

毛泽东像章复兴的背后是一股巨大的政治力量。

中国国家主席习近平被认为是继毛泽东之后最有权势的人物。 在中国共产党成立100周年的当下，习近平让中国在全副武装中走向民族主义，强调共产主义的意识形态。

 一系列大规模的人权危机，如新疆集中营和对香港民主运动的镇压也都是他治下的产物。

作为一名在中国出生的澳大利亚公民，我有不止一位家人在毛泽东残酷的统治下丧生。而在奥运颁奖礼上看到这些像章，于我而言是一种创伤。

眼前，年轻的中国运动员不能了解中国历史的残酷真相，这同样令我愤怒。佩戴着毛泽东像章的庆祝，不仅助长了无知，而且会误导他人。换句话说，她们佩戴毛泽东像章的决定是一种政治宣传的形式。

我并不完全认同国际奥林匹克委员会（International Olympic Committee，IOC）《奥林匹克宪章》（Olympic Charter）第50条禁止运动员进行政治示威。

因为，只要运动员在奥运会上代表国家，而非以个人身份参赛，奥运会就不可避免地具有政治性。

我也确实相信运动员应该拥有表达信念和抗议不公的自由，尤其是在认可我们共通的人性的前提下表达出的政治信念。

但是，在国际奥委会禁止“黑人的命也是命”（Black Lives Matter，BLM）服装、禁止单膝跪地、禁止举拳（单膝跪地和举拳都是种族平权运动中用以抗议种族暴力的标志性符号）和彩虹旗等象征着更广泛包容和接纳的符号时，国际奥委会怎能不用同样的标准要求中国运动员呢？ 更不用说她们明目张胆的政治宣传象征着一个建立在恐惧、恫吓和死亡之上的政权。

两名中国运动员鲍珊菊和钟天使利用奥运会提供的国际舞台进行无耻的政治宣传。

她们利用上台领取金牌的机会来赞扬一位暴君，利用对人类多元文化演变的欢庆来颂扬犯下残杀暴行的政权的过去。

她们的所作所为违背了奥运会的精神，更不用说对共同人性的承诺。她们应该承担自己行为的全部后果，并被取消获得金牌的资格。

本文作者巴丢草（Badiucao）是澳大利亚的华裔政治漫画家、艺术家和人权活动人士。他被认为是中国最多产和最知名的政治漫画家之一。他曾获人权基金会2020年瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔国际创意异议奖和国际漫画家权利协会2019年勇气漫画奖。2018年在香港举办展览“共歌”（Gongle）后，巴丢草和他的家人受到了中国当局的骚扰和威胁。