By Michael Rosenberg Regimes have been using sports to burnish their images or distract from their problematic behavior for centuries. This story was originally published on April 11, 2022. It was included in a year-end list of SI’s best stories of 2022. Competitive sports are built on the concept of fair play, which helps explain why so many oppressive regimes see value in games. Any form of good, wholesome fun can seem like it is presented by good, wholesome people, even when the facts say otherwise. China, with its appalling human rights record and opposition to an independent Taiwan, hoste…