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Eileen Gu, the American-born skier who won a gold medal for her mother’s homeland China, reportedly raked in tens of million dollars in Chinese endorsement deals — even before her considerable success at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
The site Insider cited a report from CBN Data, a Shanghai-based research firm, as saying Gu brought in 200 million Yuan (or over $31 million) in 2021 — before her gold medal run.
Yicai Global, an outlet in Shanghai, counted 23 endorsement deals for Gu heading into the Olympics, including Estee Lauder cosmetics, Cadillac, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany.
According to various outlets, her Chinese endorsers include Anta sportswear, Luckin Coffee, Mengniu Dairy, the e-retailer, JD.Com, China Mobile, the Peoples Insurance Company of China and Bank of China.
Gu, 18, is both a supermodel and a champion. She won the gold medal in women’s freestyle big air last week, becoming the youngest gold medalist in history for that event. Gu also earned a silver medal in freestyle slopestyle.
She was born in San Francisco to an American father and Chinese mother.
In February of 2019, Gu met China president Xi Jinping, and soon thereafter decided she was competing for China in the 2022 Olympics.
“I hope that through my pursuit of the extreme sport, I could enhance interaction, understanding and friendship between the Chinese and American people,” she wrote on the Chinese social media network, Weibo, according to the New York Times
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While Gu’s goal of friendships amongst people is laudable, there is the reality that the commerce in China — where her flourishing will only grow after her gold medal performance — is inextricable from the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese authorities have been credibly accused of rape, forced sterilizations and mandated labor of the minority Uyghur Muslim population in the country.
Nikki Haley, the conservative former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, ripped Gu for not taking a side between the countries.
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“In terms of the citizenship, look, China or the U.S.? You have got to pick a side. Period,” Haley said in a recent interview with Real Clear Politics. “You’ve got to pick a side because you’re either American or you’re Chinese, and they are two very different countries. … Every athlete needs to know when they put their flag on, you’re standing for freedom or you’re standing for human rights abuses. There is no in-between.”
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, hoped that Americans understand “that China is the one that gave us COVID. China is the one stealing intellectual property. China is the one committing human rights abuses. And China is the one that has become a surveillance state that is now going to start dictating to our American companies, which is why they’ve started to leave.”
The polling seems to indicate that the general public is in agreement with her.
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