China’s National Representation and the Two-China Question in the Olympic Movement: The Significance of the 1952 Helsinki Games

This paper, through a case study of Beijing’s involvement in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, provides a crucial historical analysis of China’s current obsession with the Olympic movement and the ongoing Beijing/Taipei dispute over the national representation issue. It demonstrates that both Beijing’s all-out campaign for the 2008 Games and the argument across the Strait about who should or should not represent China are nothing new, and are rooted in past experience.