Recently, the event of the Chinese Communist Party colluding with the World Anti-Doping Agency to cover up the involvement of Chinese athletes in doping has been receiving ongoing attention from countries around the world.
German TV station ARD and The New York Times revealed last month that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol in a domestic competition before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. However, the Chinese Anti-Doping Center determined that the kitchen of the hotel where these athletes stayed was contaminated, absolving the implicated athletes of any fault or negligence, and concluding that it did not constitute a doping violation. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) also accepted this assessment, with 13 of these athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics and three winning gold medals.
Following the media exposure, WADA came under severe scrutiny for its “secretive conduct and failure to supervise” in this matter. The head of the US Anti-Doping Agency labeled the event as a “shocking revelation” that was like “stabbing clean athletes in the back.” The athlete representative organizations Global Athlete and FairSport demanded a prompt clarification of the situation. German Interior Minister expressed that the International Anti-Doping Agency bears responsibility, and suspicions of negligence or even cover-ups must be thoroughly investigated.
Consequently, on April 25, WADA appointed senior Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier as an independent prosecutor to conduct a thorough review of how WADA handled the issue. On April 26, the Chinese Anti-Doping Center issued a statement strongly condemning media like ARD and The New York Times for disclosing private information, including the names of multiple athletes, without authorization.
The focus of this event is whether these 23 athletes are truly innocent. Is there a suspicion of shielding by WADA towards the Chinese Anti-Doping Center? Does the Chinese Communist Party’s emphasis on protecting the names of minors stem from a sense of care?
The involvement of Chinese swimmers in doping reflects a nationwide trend of drug use.
In fact, the history of the Chinese swimming team using doping dates back years. In August 1994, at the World Swimming Championships in Rome, swimmer Zhu Weiwei tested positive for doping and received a two-year ban from the International Swimming Federation, becoming the first Chinese swimmer to face a ban. She is also the daughter of Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Zhong Nanshan.
At the Hiroshima Asian Games in October 1994, the Chinese team won 23 gold medals, accounting for three-fourths of the total gold medals. The Japan Swimming Association appealed to the International Swimming Federation, requesting drug testing for the Chinese team and providing video evidence. Surveillance devices in the rooms where Chinese athletes stayed recorded their drug injections, and discarded needles served as evidence of doping. Urine samples of Chinese athletes were sent to Europe for testing, and the results showed that 11 Chinese athletes tested positive for steroids, resulting in the retrieval of 12 medals and two-year bans for 11 athletes.
One of the athletes, Xiong Guoming, later admitted, “Yes, I took it at the time! I can’t say the reasons, but at that time, everyone understood.” He later won gold again at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games but was subsequently found using clenbuterol and received a lifetime ban.
The stripping of 12 medals from the Chinese team at the Hiroshima Asian Games was labeled as the “biggest doping scandal in modern sports history.” The Chinese swimming team was barred from participating in the 1995 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, and the “Chinese Swimming Doping Incident” became a hot topic in international sports news, with China becoming synonymous with doping.
At the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the commentator quipped, “Here comes a team that wins medals by taking drugs.” At this Olympics, the Chinese women’s swimming team, no longer daring to dope, only won one gold medal.
In 1998, Yuan Yuan was caught carrying 13 bottles of growth hormone upon entering Australian customs during the Perth Swimming World Championships. She and her coach were banned from competing. Four Chinese athletes were caught with positive urine samples at the Perth Swimming World Championships.
In 2000, Wu Yanyan, the world record holder in the 200m individual medley, tested positive for doping at the National Olympic Trials. Wu claimed she only took nutritional supplements provided by the national swimming team, and questioned why only she was detected. The Chinese Swimming Association denied her request for retesting, resulting in a four-year ban. This indicates that doping was a state-sponsored activity.
Just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 26-year-old backstroke swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng tested positive for a banned substance in an out-of-competition test. He was subsequently banned for life by the Chinese Swimming Association, and his head coach, Feng Shangbao, had his coaching credentials canceled for life. The severity of this punishment was to portray a positive anti-doping image ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
In 2011, swimmer Ning Zetao was found to have taken clenbuterol and was suspended for a year by the International Swimming Federation.
In May 2014, at the National Championships, Sun Yang tested positive for clenbuterol and was suspended for three months by the Chinese Anti-Doping Center. Sun Yang was then able to participate in the Incheon Asian Games in September of the same year.
In 2018, Sun Yang was again involved in a case of refusing drug testing and tampering with sample containers. After several rounds of appeals, Sun Yang was eventually banned for four years and three months.
With doping incidents frequently occurring in the swimming world, Chinese swimmers have faced disdain from foreign athletes. After Sun Yang won gold, foreign athletes like Horton refused to shake his hand, and Scott refused to share the medal podium with Sun Yang.
Some say that the use of doping by the Chinese swimming team originates from the introduction of East German doctor Rudolf in 1985. However, according to former national team doctor Xue Yinian, who fled to Germany at the age of 76 for exposing China’s doping abuse, the National Sports Commission first raised doping issues at a meeting on October 11, 1978. They believed that doping was meant for patients, but other countries were using it on athletes, so why shouldn’t Chinese athletes use it too?
At that time, Li Furong, the head of the Sports Commission Training Bureau, supported the use of doping, promoting it as “special nutrition” and “energetic supplements.” Youth sports schools across the country were not spared from this directive.
Fo Shaozu, former director of the National Sports Administration, recalled in his memoir that there was a consensus in the sports world that if results were not satisfactory, athletes needed to use doping. The three principles of using doping were: effective, harmless, and undetectable.
Xue Yinian said that starting in 1980, the national team used doping extensively. She tried to protect the gymnastics team from doping, but under the national doping system, her efforts seemed naive. She found solace in the fact that she never gave any athlete doping. However, she was marginalized and ultimately transferred out of the gymnastics team.
With a stained past in the Chinese swimming team, the Chinese Anti-Doping Center’s ruling that the 23 athletes involved in the doping incident were faultless holds little credibility.
Who is really damaging the physical and mental health of minors?
In its statement, the Chinese Anti-Doping Center strongly condemned media outlets for unauthorized disclosure of private information, including minors among the 23 athletes who tested positive for clenbuterol. It called for an investigation by WADA and reserved the right to take appropriate legal action.
According to reports, the 23 athletes who tested positive for clenbuterol were all part of the Chinese national swimming team, with three of them being minors at the time, including Wang Yichun and Yu Yiting, who were respectively 15 years old and later became relay world champions in 2023 and 2024.
In the 1980s, the directive to use doping even reached youth sports schools in China, with some children as young as 11 years old being forced to take doping. Xue Yinian mentioned that kids at youth sports schools would reach out their hands eagerly upon hearing about “nutritional supplements.” The initial improvements were evident, but once they achieved results and made it to professional teams, symptoms started to appear.
She first learned about this situation when a coach came to her expressing concerns about the physical changes in some 13- and 14-year-old boys after taking doping.
Xue Yinian emphasized that excessive use or injection of doping can seriously damage the liver, brain, and heart functions, with females possibly experiencing hormonal changes and infertility, and males suffering from diminished sexual function.
Former communist countries, such as East Germany, also utilized a nationwide doping system to boost athletes’ performance for the glory of the nation. However, numerous cases emerged of athletes suffering physical harm from excessive doping. For instance, 1980 Olympic champion Rica Reinisch developed prominent neck muscles due to high doses of testosterone and even suffered from an autoimmune disease. Former women’s 100m butterfly record holder Kornelia Ender experienced physical deformities, and her two daughters were also affected – one born with congenital endocrine disorders and the other as a deformed child. Kornelia herself succumbed to cancer at the age of 57.
Countries like East Germany and China, with communist ideologies, mandated doping for athletes, including minors, causing severe harm to athletes’ physical and mental health. The Chinese Communist Party’s so-called “condemnation” and threats of “appropriate legal actions” against media outlets that exposed this incident underscore their deceitful intentions.
Why is the World Anti-Doping Agency suspected of shielding and covering up?
The World Anti-Doping Agency explained that when they received notification from the Chinese Anti-Doping Center, they were unable to conduct on-site verification due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, hence unable to refute the theory of hotel contamination.
According to Xue Yinian’s son, Yang Weidong, the video from the ARD mentioned that the Chinese Anti-Doping Center claimed the contamination was found in the kitchen’s exhaust hood. Yang Weidong believes that the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ineffectiveness in this matter is a result of being infiltrated by the Chinese government.
Yang Weidong pointed out that WADA Vice President Yang Yang is now serving her second consecutive term. Public records show that Yang Yang is a former Chinese female short-track speed skater, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, and was elected as the WADA Vice President on November 7, 2019.
The Chinese Communist Party has been meticulously infiltrating United Nations organizations. According to a compilation by the Liberty Times in 2020, the Chinese Communist Party has positioned its people in important UN bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Criminal Police Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, the Asian Development Bank, the World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the UNESCO, the International Labor Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, occupying positions no lower than assistant secretary-general or assistant director-general.
The Chinese Communist Party’s manipulation of the World Health Organization in the spread and origin-tracing issues of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the severity of its infiltration and reveals the party’s ambitions to establish a China-centric international order through controlling UN agencies.
According to reports, an independent investigator will submit a report within two months, by June 25, which may affect the participation of some Chinese athletes in the upcoming Paris Olympics with just a month before the opening of the games. Everyone is eagerly waiting for a fair and unbiased investigation result. What will be the final outcome? Let us wait and see.