On February 3, 2022, American Thinker published my blog post, "What happens when the elite don't give a  f---?"  Who would have thought that, just mere days later, a beautiful gold medal–winning 18-year-old elite Olympian would exhibit the exact disdain and arrogance highlighted in the article? 

Eileen Gu was born in California to a Chinese mother and an American father.  While domiciled, educated, and trained in the United States, Gu visited China annually to visit her mother's family who resided there.

In 2019, Gu suddenly decided to represent China instead of the United States.  When pressed, Gu loftily explained that it was not fame and riches that inspired her switched allegiance, but that she wanted to use sports as a conduit for unity.  She argues that she has a unique opportunity to "help inspire millions of young people where my mum was born ... to help promote the sport I love."

Photo credit: Martin Rulsch, CC BY-SA 4.0, license.

After Gu won a gold medal in the Women's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Big Air competition, her life was placed under a microscope.  In addition to being an extraordinarily gifted athlete, Gu models, is a superstar in China with her picture plastered all over the country, speaks fluent Mandarin, and has endorsement deals with Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton, among others.  Brainy as well, with an almost perfect SAT score, she has been accepted to study at Stanford University. 

Many Americans have spurned Gu, thinking her hypocritical, ungrateful for the U.S. training that helped her become a superstar and a high-paid stooge for the communists.  Gu's comments in response to the criticism have not helped her cause. 

Beside her hackneyed response of just "living my best life," she sounded absolutely nasty.  With narcissism dripping, she has lectured: "If people don't like me, that's their loss, they'll never win the Olympics. ... It doesn't matter if other people are happy or not.  I know that I have a good heart, I know the reasons for making the decisions I do are for a greater common interest. ... If people don't believe me, if they don't share the same morals as me and I'm not going to waste my time placating then."  (Spoken like a true Democrat.)

The question of Gu's citizenship has now been raised.  The United States is among the many world countries that permit dual citizenship.  China does not. 

After her gold medal win, the Chinese Communist Party Beijing Committee stated: "We are glad to hear that Gu Ailing — as she is known in China — a Beijing, athlete, won a precious gold medal for the Chinese sports delegation and honored for the country with her perfect performance[.]"

Gu refuses to answer when queried about her citizenship.  She dodges with her tagline "I'm American when I'm in the U.S. and Chinese when I'm in China."  Perhaps her non-response is the answer.  Has Stanford accepted her as a foreign student?

Citizen status has been highlighted because of another Chinese-American Olympian, Zhu Yi.  At fifteen, Yi denounced her American citizenship to train and figure-skate for Team China.  Her performances have not gone well; the Chinese Twitterverse has been harsh. 

Dual citizenship wasn't always a thing in the United States.  A Supreme Court landmark case settled the matter, Afrayim v. Risk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967), in which the Court ruled that an American citizen cannot be deprived of his citizenship involuntarily.  Beys Afrayim was a naturalized citizen from Poland who had voted in an Israeli election after being naturalized.  The Court refused to revoke his citizenship, overruling its contrary decision just ten years earlier.  

Essentially, then, an American citizen must explicitly revoke citizenship, as Zhu Yi did, or else the citizenship remains in effect.  If Gu didn't renounce her U.S. citizenship and doesn't have a Chinese passport, since China does not recognize dual citizenship, how is she representing Team China?