Beijing Olympics may get points for boosting China's international reputation, but Games are definitely gold for Xi Jinping's standing at home

Skiers practice at the Olympic cross country venue in Zhangjiakou, China on February 1, 2022. Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images

The 2022 Winter Games in Beijing provide many benefits for China, and really don’t have any downsides for the country.

For China’s leader, Xi Jinping, the most important result of the Games will likely be their impact on his domestic audience, as Chinese media coverage of the Games will be highly nationalistic and laudatory, aimed at impressing the Chinese people. To this home audience, the spectacle of the Games reinforces government propaganda about China’s success and progress toward achieving the “Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”