American-born Olympic freestyle skier Eileen Gu has made headlines for her talent and for her decision to compete under the Chinese flag — a choice National Review senior editor Charles C. W. Cooke, on today’s edition of The Editors, said is, though “not in the legal sense, of course . . . adjacent to treason.”

“She chose to represent a communist dictatorship over the United States,” Cooke pointed out. “That is the wrong call.”

Cooke said, “If, in the 1970s, an American had gone to Russia and done this, it would have been immediately obvious how grotesque that was. I don’t see any difference. So I hate this. I think anyone who’s patriotic should hate this.”

Gu’s mostly positive public treatment contrasts with that of another Olympian, Hunter Hess, who was blasted by some media and even President Trump for comments he made about his feelings on representing America. Cooke said that while he thinks “there are a lot of things that are really bad in America too — I loathe the fact that millions of babies are aborted every year . . . if I were representing the United States, I wouldn’t talk about that. I think that you have to decide as a general rule whether or not your country is good and whether it is good despite bad things happening.”

“I just think the answer is, ‘Look, I’m here to represent the United States in my sport, and I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about my sport.’” While Hess’s comments do bother Cooke, they are “on a completely different level” than Gu’s actions. “You’re choosing another country over your own.”

The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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