China Will Crack Down on Doping by Putting Steroid Users in Jail
China Will Crack Down on Doping by Putting Steroid Users in Jail | steroid.com
The Chinese sports administration will introduce new legislation to criminalize doping next year.
China’s top sports official Gou Zhongwen has promised to criminalize doping in China. This will mean prison terms for Chinese athletes who are caught using anabolic steroids and other prohibited performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
The Winter Olympics are coming to China in 2022. And Chinese government officials need to show the world that it is committed to eliminating doping among its athletes. This is the undisputed motivation for the new legislation.
Zhongwen believes the new laws will “show the world” that China will not tolerate doping when the 2022 Winter Olympic commence in Beijing and surrounding towns on February 4, 2022.
“It is our will to show the world we are really serious about anti-doping and are taking concrete measures on fight against doping,” promised Zhongwen.
China is suspected of operating a state-sponsored doping program for its national athletes.
China is one of the countries that is widely believed to currently operate a state-sponsored systematic doping program among its athletes. China has insisted that any such program ceased to operate long ago.
China's involvement in state-sponsored doping was inspired by the East German program in the 1960s and 1970s. China’s doping program gained momentum throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and possibly even the 2010s.ÂÂ
Following the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal in recent years, anti-doping crusaders may be looking to devote their investigative resources to allegations of state-sponsored doping by China.
Chinese government officials likely hope its “crackdown” on doping will avert such attention. They definitely want avoid the same fate as Russia. Russia saw its athletes banned from 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics GamesÂÂ
If China does follow up with its plans to criminalize doping, it will do so before either the United States or United Kingdom have passed such legislation.
The United Kingdom resisted pressure to criminalize doping prior to the 2012 London Summer Olympics. However, the United States is showing clear signs that it will cave to the whims of anti-doping crusaders.
The United States has plans to criminalize doping by American athletes (but only in international competitions) with the introduction of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act. The proposed law will include possible jail time for some athletes caught using steroids and PEDs.
The prospects for criminalizing doping in China appear to be strong. The Chinese Supreme People’s Court has expressed its desire to crack down on doping as well.
"With China strengthening the rule of law and anti-doping being included in the process, we, as China's highest judicial organ, feel obliged to do our part in cracking down on doping,” according to Judge Jiang Qibo.
Source:
Diamond, J. (December 29, 2018). China to make doping a criminal offence and warns athletes who test positive could be sent to prison. Retrieved from insidethegames.biz/index.php/articles/1073710/china-to-make-doping-a-criminal-offencechina-to-make-doping-a-criminal-offence-and-warns-athletes-who-test-positive-could-be-sent-to-prison
