Although the Chinese men’s national soccer team was disqualified early on from the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, China is touting its role in building the game’s centerpiece venue, the Lusail Stadium.
However, reports of widespread human rights abuses during construction loom over what would otherwise have been a showcase of modern architecture, with some media describing it as the “stadium of shame” and referring to the World Cup as the “Qatar World Cup of Shame.”
The stadium was a joint venture between Qatar’s HBK Contracting Company and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), a Chinese state-owned enterprise. China hailed the Lusail Stadium as a landmark project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Qatar, with Chinese media calling it a “golden bowl.”…