Eileen Gu Risks China Fan Base with US Olympic Envoy Role

( Bloomberg)-- Skier Eileen Gu’s decision to join the US shot to host a Winter Olympics sparked fierce debate in China over the American- born athlete’s split commitment between the world’s two largest husbandry.

Gu’s advertisement at the TIME100 Summit in New York that she ’d come an minister for the US trouble to hold the event in Salt Lake City in 2030 or 2034 was the alternate- most- read content on China’s Twitter- suchlike Weibo on Wednesday morning.

A hashtag of the freeskier’s commentary that she did n’t lament representing China at the Winter Olympics racked up some 26 million reads.

Her decision to plump a US Olympic shot was seen as a treason by some, coming so soon after Gu won gold for China.

“ Is she Chinese or American? ” one stoner wrote, while another blasted that she ’d “ pretended ” to be Chinese to make millions in signatures, pertaining to the 18- time-old’s deals with companies includingJD.comInc. and Luckin Coffee Inc.

Others were more probative. “ My friend Gu Ailing is really awful and makes me proud, ” wrote one stoner, pertaining to the athlete by her Chinese name.

Gu shot to stardom in China by winning two gold orders and a tableware at this time’s Beijing Winter Olympics, helping the nation land a record nine golds.

Her success was a soft power achievement for Beijing, egging President Xi Jinping to mention her by name at an awards form in April.