A REALIST view of the world says the Winter Olympics boycotts announced first by Joe Biden and then by Scott Morrison will do nothing to stop the persecution of the Uighur minority in western China.
They may even do more harm than good.
This stance says China will never bow to Western nations that themselves are guilty of problematic treatment - or worse - of their own Indigenous minorities.
It says such megaphone diplomacy allows the Chinese Communist Party to capitalise on the boycotts by criticising them publicly, but welcoming them, privately, as a useful tool to hit back at their critics.
The "boycotts" themselves are half-hearted.
Hence the reaction from Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, who said: "No one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Olympics to be successfully held by Beijing.
"Politicians calling for a boycott are doing so for their own political interests and posturing."
There is something to this assessment. In the US, support for President Biden and his Democrat Party have tumbled since the bungled handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Mid-term elections in November 2022 are still 11 months away but the Democrats will be able to build on the boycott as a symbol of national strength.
Here, the Beijing dates of February 4 to February 20 may handily fall in the middle of an election campaign.
Both leaders are invoking nationalist sentiments.
Citing the Uighur lets them play to the hawks, while appearing virtuous at the same time.
Critics say such posturing simply gives China gets another opportunity to portray us as beholden to Washington, with no separate foreign policy of our own.
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Boycott sceptics should realise that this is not simply an Anglosphere response, even if Boris Johnson has added England's name to the list, confirming no "ministers or officials" were "expected" to attend, even if he didn't think sporting boycotts were "sensible".
China is scaring a lot of countries at present, some of its close neighbours, especially.
The International Olympic Committee maintains a "neutral" stance politically, but human rights groups say participation effectively endorses the Chinese government's authoritarian worldview, and ignores what's happening in Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as to the Uighur.
In this light, a boycott of some sort was always inevitable.
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