- Eileen Gu and Zhu Yi were both born in the US, but chose to compete for China at Beijing 2022.
- The Winter Olympics come as relations between the US and China are severely stretched.
- Gu and Zhu now find themselves sucked into the two nations' diplomatic tensions.
Eileen Gu is without a doubt the breakout star of the Winter Olympics. The 18-year-old's blockbuster performance in the ski big air contest on Tuesday was an early highlight of the games, giving China its first gold on snow in Beijing 2022.
But she is also being drawn into the increasingly politicized nature of the games, which saw a diplomatic boycott from the US, Canada, UK, and Australia over China's oppression of Uyghurs in the region of Xinjiang.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki cited "genocide and crimes against humanity" committed by China as a driving force of the boycott. Despite widespread evidence of the persecution of Uyghurs, China has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and accused Western nations of seeking to politicize the games.
Meanwhile, Gu, with her mixed heritage — her father is American and her mother is Chinese — has been sucked into the spat, with Chinese media seeking to turn her decision to represent the country instead of the US into a diplomatic win.
Before she'd even taken to the slopes, Gu's choice to represent China was used by some Chinese outlets to demonize Western nations.
The night before Gu's win, the Global Times, an English-language tabloid run by the Chinese state, published a story headlined: "Western elites embarrass themselves by attacking naturalized Chinese athletes."
"The US has grown to be a global power by attracting global talent. Now Washington criticizes those who choose Beijing over it, displaying American elites' calculated snobbery," it said, without providing evidence of such criticism.
The story provided little proof of Western criticism of Gu's choice beyond a brief reference to an exchange between the Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Will Cain last week, in which Cain called Gu "ungrateful" and accused her of betraying America.
Hu Xijin, a Global Times commentator who is prominent on Twitter, also presented Gu's choice to represent China as a win for the country, while belittling the Chinese-born human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who became a US citizen last year:
—Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) February 8, 2022
Gu, for her part, has tried to make clear that she sees herself as both American and Chinese.
"I'm fully American and look and speak the way I do. Nobody can deny I'm American," she told the South China Morning Post. "When I go to China, nobody can deny I'm Chinese because I'm fluent in the language and culture and completely identify as such."
Zhu Yi has also been caught between the US and China
While Gu has enjoyed great success at Beijing, another American-born athlete competing for China, 19-year-old Zhu Yi, has been less fortunate, and also dragged into the US-China war of words.
Zhu, who was born in Los Angeles but reportedly gave up her US citizenship for a Chinese one in 2018, went viral on Chinese social media after falling twice during her debut.
The 19-year-old was flooded with negative comments online, and the hashtag "Zhu Yi's Winter Olympics debut is not perfect" garnered more than 33 million views in hours. Some people even baselessly accused her of being a US spy.
Hu, the Chinese commentator, attempted to pin the anger toward Zhu on the US, accusing the US of stoking "populism" in China.
—Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) February 7, 2022
Getting sucked into US-China diplomatic tensions is unfair on both women: They are still teenagers, and most likely chose to represent China in good faith, hoping for a chance to compete at the Olympics and reflect their mixed heritage on the world stage.
Instead, they've found themselves pawns in a testy geopolitical battle — exactly what China said it was trying to avoid.