Nikki Haley to Olympic Skier: ‘China or the U.S.? You Have Got to Pick a Side’
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Nikki Haley, Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, ripped into Olympic gold medallist skier Eileen Gu for choosing to compete for China during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Gu, who was born in San Francisco, began competing professionally for China in 2019. Gu, 18, previously competed for the U.S. during the 2018 Freestyle Ski World Cup.
“In terms of the citizenship, look, China or the U.S.? You have got to pick a side. Period,” Haley told Real Clear Politics’ Phillip Wegmann in an interview published Tuesday.
Haley, who says she is not watching the Olympics, told Gu, “You’ve got to pick a side because you’re either American or you’re Chinese, and they are two very different countries.”
“Every athlete needs to know when they put their flag on, you’re standing for freedom or you’re standing for human rights abuses,” Haley added. “There is no in-between.”
Haley blasted China for its human rights abuses during the interview and lamented the treatment of the Chinese Uyghurs, which the U.S. has called genocide.
“I can’t get the images out of my head of people on their knees blindfolded, knowing what’s about to happen to them,” she said. “I can’t imagine in any way supporting that or propping up China.”
Gu has become a somewhat controversial figure during the games. James Palmer noted in Foreign Policy that Gu “stirred controversy for representing China. She is the product of a vanishing shared space between the Chinese and American elite.”
Li Yuan wrote in the New York Times, “The women’s starkly different circumstances — celebrated vs. silenced — reflect that to the Chinese state everyone is a tool that serves a purpose until it does not.”
Gu who has become a sensation in China has secured dozens of endorsements in China. Gu has won a
gold in the women’s freestyle and a silver medal in the women’s slopestyle.
“I am proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringings,” the skier whose mother is Chinese wrote on Instagram in 2019.
“The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love.”
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