EILEEN GU: A CASE STUDY IN THE AMERICANNESS OF CHINESE AMERICANS.

ICHEOKU says if China does not accept dual citizenship as a matter of State's policy and they allowed her to compete under the Chinese national red flag as a Chinese athlete, it means that she renounced her American citizenship as the Chinese authorities must have insisted on her doing so first before they signed off on her competing for China. 

She was born in San Francisco, a California city with a very large Chinese population, to an American white father and a Chinese mother. Like many of her Chinese--American compatriots, who for the most part, often see their American citizenship as just a tool to help them get what they want, her allegiance is now openly made known as incontrovertibly, primarily to China. She has also forever foreclosed her chance at ever representing the United States of America in any future global sports competition whatsoever.

According to her, her mother made her do it, to switch her allegiance from her country of birth America to her mother's country of birth China, as her mother taught her to embrace her "heritage and honor her ancestry". But what has her "heritage and ancestry" ever done for her throughout her 18 years of existence, one may be forced to ask; yet she prefers to fly the red flag of China against the white, red and blue flag of America, the country which gave her everything she has and also provided the hospital in which she was born and the Stanford University she will be attending. Would she rather live under the control of the Chinese Communist Party than the freedom she is enjoying in America? 

She is Chinese-American, but for all intent and purpose, prefers her Chinese half to her American half. It is the same way former President Barack Obama prefers to identify as black rather than white, but never sought to nor campaigned to be president of Kenya. Whether he "embraced his heritage and honored his ancestry" is also debatable. If children normally inherit the pedigree of their father, why this Chinese representation at the Beijing Winter Olympics games by this San Francisco born Chinese mother and American father female freestyle skier? 

It is true that many hybrid Americans are often conflicted about their true identity and most times, they break for the side that will give them the most mileage in life. Former President Barack Obama did exactly the same thing when he moved to Chicago from his Hawaii pampered life, with politics in his view.  He started learning how to be black, to understand what it really means to be black in America and then he started behaving like black. He directly courted blacks, attended Jeremiah Wright's black church for twenty years and also married a black Michelle to complete his blackness credentials and political resume. But during his presidential campaign when he ran into racial trouble with white people, he hurriedly dusted up his white side pedigree. 

Is it possible that these racially hybrid Americans are just milking their Americanness depending on how it suits their convenience. It would even be more understandable if the parents of such  American born individuals, were both immigrants from another country and still have undiluted sentimental attachment to their country of birth. As with many immigrants in America and practically  elsewhere, their mother country is always very dear to their hearts and they celebrate their heritage as occasion permits. They also instruct their children accordingly about where they come from, their background and also visit with their children to their native country as often as they can afford to make the trip. 

They sometimes even tell their American born children that they should not behave like "those Americans" because they are not Americans. Imagine that, telling children born in America that they are not Americans. There was this story about a Nigerian- American couple who sent their American born children back to Nigeria to be "correctly and properly" tutored about life, despite the children's protestations that they do not want to live in Nigeria because they are not Nigerians but Americans. It took the intervention of the American embassy in Nigeria, who the children secretly called, to bring them back to America. 

It is not just Chinese, but so many immigrants in America who go through this conflict of divided nationality, including even Mexican immigrants whose country of birth shares a common border with America. Sometimes it takes the passing away of such immigrant parents and even the first generation before their children's children will become completely and fully Americanized. So, let no reader of this piece get this piece wrong, as it is not meant to chastise this particular Chinese-American champion freestyle skier or to throw any dart at hybrid Americans because of their mixed race pedigree. 

ICHEOKU is only merely exploring why Eileen Gu did what she did, preferring to compete for China instead of America, her country of birth; especially at this particular time when China's genocide against the Uiighers is front and center of world conversations, the reason there was a diplomatic boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Why did she do it? Does she approve of what the CCP is doing to Chinese minorities or would she rather live under their repressive regime, with only government approved and rationed freedom. What founded her action and why is she so proud of it. Could it be that Brad Pitt was right when he said in the movie Killing Them Softly: "In America, you're on your own. America is not a country, it's just a business. Now pay me." 

She could have easily competed for America as a Chinese-American and still enjoyed the support and love of both countries, her mother's China and her and her father's America as a Chinese pedigreed American making American winter sports competitiveness great again at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. She would have become an instant heroine and celebrity in America as a powerful voice to reckon with the Chinese American community in America. But for her to diss America in this manner, and at a time of high wire global politics and ratcheting tension between the two countries over Taiwan and for what China did to Hong Kong, leaves so much to be desired. She sent a strong message to the world about America and it is not a good message. 

She is now an embodiment of the lack of trust by some American people of a large segment of the Chinese population in America, particularly those in San Francisco and Los Angeles, who these Americans believe owe greater loyalty to China than they do to America. These Americans also believe that it is mostly from this segment that the Chinese Communist Party is drawing the majority of their American spies to infiltrate American politicians and government agencies and departments to mine sensitive information and steal trade secrets. Recall that both Congressman Eric Swalwell's Chinese honey pot and Senator Diane Feinstein's Chinese personal chauffeur/driver of over twenty years came from this very Los Angeles and San Francisco California axis. 

Such a display of borderline loyalty may be one of the reasons some knuckleheads often attack Chinese and other Chinese-looking Americans on the streets, believing that they are moles working for the Chinese Communist Party who do not mean well for America. Many of these Chinese-Americans believe that they are Chinese and not Americans; and for the most part, only fly the American flag when there is a racial complaint to make and protest against. 

Now, Eileen Gu will be celebrating her Winter Olympics gold medal win in Beijing instead of Washington DC or San Francisco, parading through downtown Beijing alongside other Chinese medal winners in the olympics, her now fully affirmed and newly found fellow Chinese compatriots. Just an aside, if she were a member of the United States Marine Corp and war broke out between China and America over Taiwan, and her platoon were deployed to the South China sea to help defend Taiwan, what would she have done? Your guess is probably as good as this writer's. 

ICHEOKU says will be withholding any congratulations to her as that would amount to sleeping with the enemy since she is now part of the genocidal Chinese Communist Party. May be they will give her an honorary membership of the CCP as a reward for what she did, choosing China over America. A country which gave her everything and made it possible for her to attain the great olympian height which she did and also took care of her from birth to now and continuing. 

No wonder San Francisco is what it is, acute liberalism on steroids; always rioting and burning the American flag. This particular Chinese gold winning medalist and now America hating, Eileen Gu, has surpassed every expectations of a weirdness from whacko San Francisco. What does she want to prove, that she can be more outrageous than any other San Franciscan? And Madam Speaker crazy Nancy is their representative. Is she ok with this? Lets see if she will invite her to Washington DC, honor and celebrate her for the gold medal win. In short, this gold winning freestyle skier might be crazier than Nancy for crying out loud.