AMN / WEB DESK
China on Friday officially launched the 2022 Winter Olympic Games with the opening ceremony at Beijing’s iconic National Stadium, also known as The Bird’s Nest, the site of the ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Games.
Friday’s opening ceremony was led by President Xi Jinping, who announced the official opening of the Games, along with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. They were joined by other world leaders—most notably Russian President Vladimir Putin. He and Xi met earlier in the day amid the standoff along Russia’s border with Ukraine. Xi also was joined by World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The coronavirus outbreak emerged in China more than two years ago, and Beijing’s locked-down Winter Games are aimed at showcasing its power under a global spotlight, despite the U.S. and several other governments mounting a diplomatic boycott because of the way China treats millions of its own people
Dipomats from the United States, Britain and Canada are boycotting the Games to protest what they say is the genocide of some 1 million Muslim Uyghurs in China’s far western Xinjiang province. Beijing officials have rejected the allegations of human rights abuses.
India is the latest to join the diplomatic boycott. New Delhi’s announcement came after China included in an Olympic torch relay ahead of the opening a soldier who was involved in a deadly 2020 border clash with Indian troops. The participation of the soldier, Qi Fabao, was reported by the Chinese media.
German slider Natalie Geisenberger said she had considered boycotting but decided against it. “We athletes have absolutely nothing to do with the decision to award the Olympic Games to Beijing — the (IOC) decides and we athletes are presented with a fait accompli,” she said.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling on American athletes not to risk angering Beijing by speaking out for human rights. In an interview with VOA late Thursday, Pelosi said that “the Chinese government is ruthless” and “has no goodwill at all,” noting the Chinese government itself does not abide by the Olympic spirit.