Photo: Li Hao/GT

Despite unprecedented challenges, China put on truly exceptional Olympic Winter Games, but the success of the Games also became a prism that refracts jealousy, desperation, and sour grapes on different levels among Western media outlets, especially those of the US. 

Liberal US outlets, as always, tend to put on a decent face while functioning as a propaganda tool to target China, with their ideological and so-called politically correct language. 

For a long time, they badmouthed China for its sports system during every Olympic Games. But this time, they might have been stunned to witness how Chinese athletes enjoy the Games. So some decided to pick far-fetched angles.

The New York Times published an article on Sunday entitled, "With Olympics Closing Ceremony, China Celebrates a Joyless Triumph," arguing that Beijing 2022 was "constricted by a global health disaster, fraught with geopolitical tensions, tainted once again by accusations of doping and overshadowed by the crisis in Ukraine." 

It was joyless for the NYT for sure, as it failed to discredit the Games and can only pull such silly talk. The comments only embarrass itself. 

It basically said that China should be shamed because the Games were constricted by a global health disaster the West failed to rein in, fraught with geopolitical tensions incited by Western voices. The doping sample was collected last year before the Beijing Olympic Games. And the Games were overshadowed by the crisis in Ukraine, the flames of which were fanned by the West. 

Other US media outlets, including CNN and Washington Post, are repeating their long outdated rhetoric about so-called human rights. They hesitantly and partly acknowledged that Beijing 2022 was a success to China, but emphasized that to the outside world, it is showing an image which is "ready to defy and challenge its critics."

These media criticize China over Xinjiang affairs with their self-made lies. Yet with the Olympic Games, those who actually listen to and believe the lies are decreasing. Only some politicians in Washington and a few media outlets are mumbling about it to themselves. 

Meanwhile, the conservatives, who are eager to regain power and influence in the US, are going radical. 

The lowest level goes to a handful of US elites such as Fox News host Will Cain, who called the Olympic sensation Eileen Gu "an ungrateful traitor" earlier this month, and Bill Maher, a US television host, who dropped the s-bomb on his show Friday, cursing China as a "sh*t-hole superpower" while attacking Gu for competing for China.

Comments like these show they get increasingly jealous and scared for the rising influence of China, and for losing control of the real world. 

Whether they admit it or not, or how much noise they have made to stir trouble for the Games, they can't ruin the beauty of Beijing 2022. China not only successfully hosted the event against the backdrop of a pandemic, but also proved its epidemic prevention and control measures work well, and proved it is a responsible power that honors its words. Can anti-China US media outlets and elites proudly say their own country could do the same? 

When US media make a fuss that American TV audience for the Games dropped this time, it only shows that Western audiences are losing interest in watching the ideological content, which their traditional media outlets squeezed in sports. It also proves the smearing China is becoming increasingly unpopular, Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told Global Times. US TV network ratings had dived long before Beijing 2022, and Trump mocked the trend in March 2019 as "fake news never wins."

The real side of the Games was told by US skier Aaron Blunck, who said China has "done a stellar job" yet US media have no courage to spread the voice. It is also mirrored when athletes from all over the world jumped up and down happily during the closing ceremony, hugged each other with joy in numerous scenes. 

So those media are disappointed. When China is striding forward on "together for a shared future," some US elites and media outlets are left with embarrassment, disappointment and a big blow to self-confidence.