Opinion: Sadly, China continues its political charade at Winter Olympics 2022 opening ceremony
BEIJING – Neither a raging global pandemic nor worldwide concern over China’s awful human rights abuses could stop Beijing from throwing itself a party Friday night at its “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium.
Compared with the last time Beijing gave us an opening ceremony, 14 years ago for the Summer Olympics, it was a muted effort with far fewer spectators, athletes and diplomats. It also was about 70 degrees colder than that sweltering night in August 2008, when the air was so heavy with Beijing’s gritty smog that black residue could be scraped off the skin. This time, it was just bitter cold.
So, for the second Olympics in a row, Beijing organizers created a grand illusion. They sure know how to put on a light show on a stadium floor. If only they were as good at things like freedom of speech and avoiding genocide.
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They even sneaked in a bit of shameless propaganda from their Peng Shuai playbook by trotting out a Uyghur cross-country skier named Dinigeer Yilamujiang to be one of two Chinese athletes to light the Olympic Cauldron. China must have thought it was so smart: That’ll show the West we don’t kill and torture the Uyghurs – we love them so much we’ll let one of them light the cauldron.
If the subject weren’t so serious, it would be laugh-out-loud hilarious. Can we have a news conference with Yilamujiang to ask how all her relatives and friends are doing in Xinjiang, the site of the Uyghur genocide at the hands of the Chinese government? How about her neighbors? When she goes back home, what is her life like?
This obvious political charade follows by a day IOC President Thomas Bach’s utter ineptitude when asked for his message to the oppressed Uyghur population. He said he was not going to comment on political issues, and that was that. He could not muster one word of support or even interest in the subject. It was appalling.
No wonder President Joe Biden led a diplomatic boycott of Beijing by various democratic nations, including Canada and France, while celebrating U.S. athletes by bathing the White House in red, white and blue spotlights. Who wanted to be anywhere near this historic fiasco?
Well, I’ll answer that question. Russian President Vladimir Putin, that’s who, jetting in to visit his pal Xi Jinping, China’s repressive leader. I'm sure they both thought it was a lovely evening.