Human Rights? China Won that Winter Olympics Battle. Almost.

ZHANGJIAKOU, China — 

When three-time Olympian Gus Kenworthy took the remarkable, perhaps even brave decision to speak out against “human rights atrocities” while still in China at the Winter Games, the self-proclaimed “loud and obnoxious” British skier also proved that other athletes, had they chosen, perhaps could have used their Olympic platform to pipe up, too.

Because Kenworthy wasn’t hauled away and imprisoned, as Chinese critics of the ruling Communist Party routinely are. Doing so would have generated exactly the sort of global focus on the Chinese government’s authoritarian methods that it sought to avoid while global sports’ biggest show was in town.

And with the notable exception of Kenworthy, China largely accomplished that mission.

Olympians with any qualms about chasing medals in a country accused of genocide against its Muslim Uyghur population and of other abuses kept their views on those topics to themselves for the durations of their stay. And perhaps for good reason: They faced vague but, as it turned out, undeployed Chinese threats of punishment, constant surveillance and the sobering example of tennis star Peng Shuai’s difficulties after she voiced allegations of forced sex against a Communist Party official.

FILE – China’s Peng Shuai reacts during her first round singles match against Japan’s Nao Hibino at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 21, 2020.

“We have seen an effective silencing of 2,800 athletes, and that’s scary,” said Noah Hoffman, a former U.S. Olympic skier and board member of the Global Athlete advocacy group pushing for Olympic reform.

FILE- Noah Hoffman, of the United States, competes during the men’s 15km freestyle cross-country skiing competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018.

Kenworthy, speaking to The Associated Press before his 8th-place finish in the halfpipe final on the Games’ penultimate day, laid out why.

“We’re in China, so we play by China’s rules. And China makes their rules as they go, and they certainly have the power to kind of do whatever they want: Hold an athlete, stop an athlete from leaving, stop an athlete from competing,” he said.

“I’ve also been advised to sort of tread lightly while I am here and that’s what I am trying to do.”

Immediately after competing, however, the proudly gay athlete’s gloves came off.

He prefaced criticism with praise for China’s “incredible job with this Olympics” and carefully calibrated his words. But unlike other Olympians, he couldn’t bite his tongue until he got home. Kenworthy aimed jabs not only at the host country’s rights abuses and “poor stance on LGBTQ rights” but also at other athletes he said try “to appeal to the masses” and avoid ruffling feathers.

“I’ve already kind of accepted that that’s not what I’m gonna do,” he said. “I’m just gonna speak my truth.”

In fairness, Olympians found themselves squeezed on all sides in Beijing. Campaigners abroad hoped they would spark global outrage over the imprisonment in re-education camps of an estimated 1 million people or more, most of them Uyghurs. China, backed to the hilt by the International Olympic Committee, didn’t want critical voices to be heard. And their own voices told athletes to focus, focus, focus on the pursuit of Olympic success that they, their coaches and families sacrificed for.

The sweep and vagueness of a Chinese official’s threat before the Games of “certain punishment” for “any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit” appeared to have a particularly sobering effect on Beijing-bound teams. Campaigners who met with athletes in the United States in the weeks before their departure, lobbying them about Uyghurs and the crushing of dissent in Tibet and Hong Kong, noticed the chill.

“Prior to the statement, we had been engaging with quite a few athletes,” said Pema Doma, campaigns director at Students for a Free Tibet. They “were expressing a lot of interest in learning more and being engaged in the human rights issue.”

Afterward, “there was a very, very distinct difference” and “one athlete even said to an activist directly: ‘I’ve been instructed not to take anything from you or speak to you,'” she said in a phone interview.

Other concerns also weighed on Olympians, way beyond the usual anxieties that often come with travel to a foreign land, away from home comforts.

Warnings of possible cyber-snooping by Chinese security services and team advisories that athletes leave electronic devices at home were alarming for a generation weaned on social media and constant connectivity with their worlds.

Also wearing were daily coronavirus tests that were mandatory — and invasive, taken with swabs to the back of the throat — for all Olympians, locked inside a tightly policed bubble of health restrictions to prevent infection spreads. The penalty for testing positive was possible quarantine and missed competition, a terrible blow for winter athletes who often toil outside of the limelight, except every four years at the Games.

“Who knows where those tests go, who handles the results,” Kenworthy said. “It’s definitely in the back of the mind.”

“And there’s like all the cybersecurity stuff. It is concerning,” he told The AP.

Often, athletes simply blanked when asked about human rights, saying they weren’t qualified to speak on the issue or were focused on competition, and hunkered down.

FILE- Sanne In ‘t Hof of the Netherlands competes in the women’s speedskating 5,000-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, in Beijing.

On Twitter, Dutch speedskater Sanne in ‘t Hof blocked, unblocked and then blocked again a Uyghur living in the Netherlands who posted critical comments of Olympians in what he called “genocide” Games. Mirehmet Ablet shared a screengrab with The AP showing that the skater had barred him from accessing her account, where she tweeted that she “enjoyed every second!’ of her first Olympics. Ablet’s brother was arrested in 2017 in the Uyghur homeland of Xinjiang in far western China, and Ablet doesn’t know where he’s now held.

Other athletes also were effusive in praising their China experience. “Nothing short of amazing,” said U.S. speedskating bronze-medal winner Brittany Bowe.

FILE- Brittany Bowe of the United States reacts after her heat in the women’s speedskating 1,500-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing.

Hoffman, who competed for the U.S. at the 2014 and 2018 Games, said internal politics within teams may also have dissuaded athletes from speaking critically. Coaches can bench athletes who bring unwanted attention and “there’s pressure from your teammates to not cause a distraction,” he said in a phone interview. Athletes with self-confidence dented by sub-par performances may also have felt that they’d lost any platform.

“There’s lots of really subtle pressure,” Hoffman said.

He expects some athletes won’t be critical once home, so as to not disrespect the cheerful and helpful Games workers.

But he’s hopeful others will speak up on their return and that “we do get a chorus.”

Feeling unmuzzled, some already are.

FILE- Nils van der Poel of Sweden reacts after breaking his own world record in the men’s speedskating 10,000-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing.

Back in Sweden with his two gold medals in speedskating, Nils van der Poel told the Aftonbladet newspaper that although he had “a very nice experience behind the scenes,” hosting the Games in China was “terrible.” He drew parallels with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany and Russia hosting the Sochi Olympics before seizing control of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

“It is extremely irresponsible,” van der Poel said, “to give it to a country that violates human rights as clearly as the Chinese regime does.”

What Happens to Uyghurs After Competing in the Olympics?

WASHINGTON — 

Amid international condemnation of its treatment of its Uyghur minority, China selected Uyghur athlete Dilnigar Ilhamjan (Dinigeer Yilamujiang in Chinese) for the honor of lighting the 2022 Olympic flame. The 20-year-old cross-country skier can only hope to fare better than the last Uyghur to be so honored.

That was Adil Abdurehim, a Uyghur who served as a torchbearer at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and was arrested nine years later. Radio Free Asia reported last week that Abdurehim “is serving a 14-year jail sentence for watching counter-revolutionary videos.”

Like Ilhamjan, Abdurehim was also hailed by Chinese authorities as “a pride and representative of the Chinese people,” said his cousin Abduweli Ayup in an interview with VOA. Charging that Abdurehim has been “used as Chinese propaganda tool” in 2008, Ayup said his cousin “was thrown in jail after his role ended up, his role at the Olympics wasn’t able to save him.”

Ayup, a Norway-based Uyghur activist, said that he has collected information about other Uyghur athletes and torchbearers who participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and who have since faced persecution of themselves or their families.

One of those was Kamalturk Yalqun, a 2008 Olympic torchbearer and now an activist, who called for the boycott of the 2022 Games.

In 2016, Chinese authorities arrested his father, renowned literary critic and Uyghur literature textbook editor Yalqun Rozi. The elder Yalqun was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of separatism.

“For decades, the stereotypical ‘happily dancing Uyghur’ has served as a puppet of propaganda for China’s official ‘ethnic unity and harmony’ narrative,” the younger Yalqun told VOA.

“This time, a Uyghur athlete was given an honor in front of the world to make the case for the same narrative.”

Uyghur rights activists are not the only ones to dismiss the selection of Dilnigar Ilhamjan to light the flame as a cynical effort by China to deflect criticism of its behavior in its western Xinjiang province, where an estimated 1 million Turkic Muslims are being detained.

Britain, Canada, Australia and several other countries joined the United States in protesting what some have labeled genocidal activity in Xinjiang by refusing to send their diplomats to the Olympics.

After the flame-lighting ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN that China’s choice of a Uyghur as one of two athletes to light the Olympic torch was “an effort by the Chinese to distract us” from the real issue.

“Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations by the Chinese. We have to keep that front and center,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, posted a statement on the embassy website rejecting his U.S. counterpart’s remark, saying that “lies by the US about the ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang’ have already been debunked by facts.”

“People of all ethnic groups there are enjoying a peaceful, harmonious and happy life,” Zhang said in the statement. Dilnigar Ilhamjan “is the pride and excellent representative of the Chinese people. On what ground does the U.S. has such inexplicable anger over this? And why?”

As for Ilhamjan, she vanished from public view after her cross-country skiing appearance on Feb. 5 where she finished 43rd.

Ayup, a Norway-based Uyghur activist, says he is not surprised by her perceived silence.

“Dilnigar Ilhamjan might one day end up in prison for a simple reason, being a Uyghur,” Ayup said, adding that he hopes the “international community pays attention to Dilnigar Ilhamjan’s fate” even after the Olympics.

Beijing Olympics Get Political with Taiwan, Uyghur Questions

BEIJING — 

For two weeks and more, China’s stance on questions about its politics and policies has been straightforward: It’s the Olympics, and we’re not talking about these things.

That changed at the Beijing organizing committee’s last regularly scheduled daily news conference Thursday, three days before the end of the Games. The persistent and polite refusal to answer such questions gave way to the usual state of affairs at news conferences with Chinese officials — emphatic, calibrated answers about the country’s most sensitive situations.

Taiwan? An indivisible part of China. The Uyghur population of the Xinjiang region? Not being pushed into forced labor. China’s sovereignty? Completely unassailable under international norms.

“What I want to say is that there is only one China in the world,” organizing committee spokesperson Yan Jiarong said, calling it “a solemn position” for China. She referred to other assertions about China’s treatment of Uyghurs and living conditions in the northwestern region of Xinjiang as “based on lies.”

It was only a matter of time before these topics burst at the seams. The run-up to the Games was overshadowed by a diplomatic boycott led by the United States, which centered on China’s human rights record; China was determined to keep the focus only on sports but is also very committed to vigorously defending its stances publicly. In the final regularly scheduled briefing before the Games close on Sunday, Yan and IOC spokesperson Mark Adams were peppered with questions about Taiwan, Xinjiang and the safety of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai.

Following up on a question about Taiwan’s reported attempt to skip the opening ceremony, Yan asked for extra time to address the status of the self-governing island, which China views as its sovereign territory.

“Mark, could I just make some supplementary remarks?” Yan said, continuing: “Taiwan is an indivisible part of China and this is a well recognized international principle and well recognized in the international community,” she said. “We are always against the idea of politicizing the Olympic Games.”

Adams was immediately questioned by a non-Chinese reporter who suggested that Yan, herself, had “politicized” the Games by raising China’s stance on Taiwan. Adams dodged the question.

“There are views on all sorts of things around the world, but our job is to make sure that the Games take place,” Adams said.

A Games volunteer, a young Chinese woman named Wei Yining, got a question she did not expect when a reporter asked if she knew who Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai was and, further, did she believe Peng was safe.

Peng, once the world’s top-ranked doubles player, three months ago accused a former high-ranking politician of sexual assault. Peng’s comments were immediately scrubbed from China’s censored internet.

“Well, I am sorry,” the young women replied. “I don’t really know that.”

One reporter asked Adams directly about the IOC’s position on the reported existence of “concentration camps” in Xinjiang, and whether China was using forced labor there. Adams suggested the question was not “particularly relevant’ to the briefing, and then went on to praise the power of the Olympics to unite people.

Yan again made sure China’s view was heard.

“I think these questions are very much based on lies,” she said. “Some authorities have already disputed this false information. There is a lot of solid evidence. You are very welcome to refer to all that evidence and the facts.”

2 Olympics and China's Love of Big

Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City. The Great Wall. The Three Gorges Dam. Dozens of high-end malls in Beijing.

China has thousands of years of doing things in a really big way, reinforcing its perceived place in the world and the political power of its leaders — from emperors to Mao Zedong to the current leader, Xi Jinping.

Beijing becoming the first city to hold both the Winter and Summer Olympics may not be a feature on the actual landscape. But it’s in the same realm for the world’s most populous country, which has long framed itself at the center of the world, evident in its name in Chinese, “Zhongguo,” or “middle country.”

This affinity for bigness isn’t new. It goes back to a dozen dynasties that ruled China for thousands of years — one of which re-created an entire army of terra cotta warriors to be buried with an emperor. It’s a tradition of projecting large-scale power that was adopted by the Chinese Communist Party when it took over in 1949.

Writing in his book “Mandate of Heaven,” U.S. China scholar Orville Schell explained how Mao, who led China’s communist revolution, expanded Tiananmen Square in the 1950s to make it the largest public square in the world — 100 acres.

That’s five times larger than Moscow’s Red Square. And Mao even went the Russians one better by adorning the square with Soviet-style architecture, the most famous of which is the Great Hall of the People. Eventually, after Mao’s death in 1976, the square came to include his imposing mausoleum.

Schell wrote of Tiananmen, calling it “a propagandist’s dream come true. Everything about it was gargantuan.”

The colossal begins with the country’s population of 1.4 billion and extends to public buildings all around China. Towering apartment blocks — some Soviet-inspired, others thrown up in a binge of modern development in the last few decades — are typically set far back from 10-lane avenues, shrinking the size of pedestrians on road-size sidewalks.

The vastness reaches to shopping malls, commercial spaces and to buildings like the Bird’s Nest stadium, a 91,000-seat colossus put up for the 2008 Olympics and used a week ago for the opening ceremony of these Winter Games.

A shopping mall in the western city of Chengdu, the New Century Global Center, is billed as the largest building on Earth. How big? Three Pentagons could fit inside. Or at least 300 football fields.

The seven-story, block-long media center for these Olympics — a convention center in normal times — replaces another outsized building that’s a block away and was used as the media center for the 2008 Games.

Add the Beijing headquarters of China Central TV, a 768-foot (234-meter), two-leg tower known around town as “Big Underpants” for its unusual design. Architect Rem Koolhaas famously said the building “could never have been conceived by the Chinese and could never have been built by Europeans. It is a hybrid by definition.”

Then there’s 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) of high-speed rail lines, and the Belt and Road Initiative — often described as the New Silk Road. Many view it as the largest building project in history, stretching from China and East Asia to Europe and consisting of rail lines, ports, highways and other infrastructure projects to expand China’s trade and influence. Critics warn of the unsustainable debt burden for many participating countries.

China’s attack on COVID-19 is fittingly mammoth, too, capable of locking down millions in a show of state power built partly on Orwellian surveillance architecture. Need a medical facility? During the pandemic, China built 1,000-bed hospitals in 10 days.

Maria Repnikova, a China specialist at Georgia State University, termed China’s policy of going large as the “politics of grandeur,” something that reaches beyond concrete to include scholarships for foreign students, exchanges, training, and economic aid.

“The idea is to give more to impress upon external audiences that we have so much to give you, that nobody else can compete with that,” Repnikova said in an interview.

“The first thing you see (in China) is the intensity of the scale, whether it’s the presidential buildings or whether it’s other sites or Olympic venues. That’s something that at first catches someone’s eye, and then it makes one wonder — how have they done it?”

But in the China context, what does big really mean? It’s impressive and can literally change the landscape. Yet there’s massive meaning, too, in the thinking behind it — particularly for a government that has long prized the projection of control outward to its sometimes disobedient hinterlands.

“Authoritarian use of political symbols and propaganda can serve two purposes: to persuade audiences of the regime’s legitimacy, and to demonstrate state power,” Sheena Greitens, who researches China at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in an email.

“I suspect that Beijing will use both during the Olympics, presenting domestic and international audiences with humanizing stories about ordinary Chinese people while also making sure they witness impressive displays of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and state power.”

Diana Fu, a China expert at the University of Toronto, said authoritarian states often build in a systematic way that she terms “spatial governance,” which helps them put down any protests or insurrections.

“Small, winding streets and dense neighborhoods can foster a sense of neighborly feelings and trust, which is critical for collective action,” Fu wrote to AP. “In contrast, large boulevards and predictably geometric patterns of streets and districts allow the state to better surveil and control its population. Authoritarian states like contemporary China are able to do so while facing little opposition from civil society.”

For the 2008 Olympics, China even tried to control the weather, claiming to make rain to clear the polluted skies, and then drive rain away when it was called for. The rainmakers had installations outside Beijing, where peasants donned military fatigues and helmets and used anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers to blast the sky with silver iodide, hoping to coax rain from the clouds.

That’s going big.

Sixty years ago, during the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong made extravagant claims about new agricultural techniques that could lift China out of starvation. His plans to beat nature were based mostly on ideology and pseudo-science and caused widespread famine.

“Authoritarian parties and leaders try to create a sense of unassailability,” Alexander Dukalskis, who teaches international relations at the University of Dublin, wrote to AP. “Through symbols and displays of state power they communicate that their rule is inevitable and that challenges are bound to be fruitless.”

He added: “Projections of state power are also useful for an international audience: They can convince other states or companies that if they step out of line, then they can be punished.”

Mental Health Hovers Over Olympics, on its Way to Mainstream

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — 

At the Tokyo Olympics, mental health was the breakout star. Amplified by some of the world’s top athletes, it shook up those Games and made everyone take notice.

Six months later, in Beijing, the conversation has evolved: The subject pops up regularly, but no one is shocked when it does.

Many athletes have spoken about their struggles, but often in a no-biggie, nothing-to-see-here way. A difficulty is mentioned, then the conversation moves on. After star gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of competition in Tokyo because she wasn’t in the right headspace, retired Olympic swimming phenom Michael Phelps memorably said that “It’s OK to not be OK.”

And now, thanks in part to people like Biles, it seems it’s OK to talk about it, too.

“I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned after the last Olympics is being as open as possible,” snowboarding sensation Chloe Kim told reporters after she took the gold medal Thursday in the halfpipe competition.

It was Kim’s second Olympic gold. She initially threw that first one, earned in Pyeongchang four years ago, in the trash — a story that epitomizes the dissonance between the cheery face many champions show the world and the torments they face behind the scenes.

“After my last Olympics, I put that pressure on myself to be perfect at all times, and that would cause a lot of issues at home. I would be really sad and depressed all the time when I was home,” Kim told reporters after easily securing the top spot on the podium — but also failing to land a new trick she is working on.

“I’m happy to talk about whatever I’ve been experiencing,” she said. “Honestly, it’s really healthy for me.”

It wasn’t just Kim who was talking about it. After snowboarder Jamie Anderson, who came to Beijing as the two-time defending slopestyle champion, finished ninth, she posted on Instagram that her “mental health and clarity just hasn’t been on par.”

Skier Mikaela Shiffrin was particularly honest after she failed to finish either of her first two races in events that are specialties of hers. She said that she had been feeling pressure, something every elite athlete feels and is distinct from the more complicated mental health challenges many have been talking about.

But Shiffrin also plumbed greater depths, acknowledging that she was angry with her dad, who died in 2020, for not being there to support her.

FILE – Simone Biles of the United States waits to perform on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo.

After finally managing to complete a race Friday — shockingly, even that had become an open question for the star — she posted on Instagram about the ups and downs of competition.

“There’s a lot of disappointment and heartbreak going around in the finish area,” she wrote.

As several elite athletes stumbled in Beijing, they were often quick to remind the world that they’re human, too. Shiffrin even has a paid post on Instagram, in which the tagline is: “Yeah, I am human.” A far cry from the usual vaunting of athletes as something much more than that.

This is what many hoped for after Tokyo — that as more athletes acknowledged what they face behind the scenes, the stigma around talking about mental health would recede and the issue would merely become one more challenge in the mix.

“I think that it really has become normalized with so many athletes talking about their mental health, and there has been such a push for parity with mental health and physical health,” said Jess Bartley, director of mental health services for Team USA.

“I think, in the experience I’ve had with a lot of these athletes, it’s really relieving to be able to talk about it, to have folks understand, to have the audience understand what may be coming up that might have impacted their performance,” she said. “Just in the same way that you hear about a sprained ankle.”

Bartley works with athletes to prepare how they’ll respond to questions about their mental health just as she works with them on preparing their performance. Some feel comfortable revealing those struggles; others don’t.

United States’ Chloe Kim celebrates during the venue ceremony for the women’s halfpipe at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 10, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.

Louie Vito, a snowboarder who competed for Italy in Beijing, puts himself in the latter camp. He’s glad that mental health is being talked about more openly — he readily admits framing some of his struggles in that way was eye-opening for him — but he would prefer to keep much of that private.

“I think some people would rather deal with their mental battles in their inner circle,” he said. “To me, it’s not a right or a wrong on how you deal with it as long as you’re aware and it doesn’t become detrimental to you. I don’t think you have to talk about in public.”

And he acknowledged that many people are still embarrassed to talk about these issues.

Yet so many do keep talking — encouraged by a generation of younger athletes determined not only to be heard but to ensure that this subject is no longer something to be dramatically revealed, but simply addressed like anything else important.

Amanda Fialk, who is the chief clinical officer at The Dorm, a mental health treatment program for young people, is heartened by the increasingly open conversations happening. But she warns that true change will take much more time to take hold.

She underscores that there are vast cultural differences — across countries and between communities within any given country — that affect access to and the stigma around mental health care.

“I am also mindful that old habits die hard,” said Fialk, who was a competitive figure skater when she was younger. “It is going to take continued talking about these issues and continued efforts to normalize talking about all these issues for the change to not just be a change, but to become a new normal.”

United States Wins First Gold Medal of Beijing Winter Olympics

The United States secured its first gold medal of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Wednesday when Lindsey Jacobellis won the women’s snowboard cross competition.

The 36-year-old Jacobellis has been the dominant figure in the short history of the sport, but has come up short in her quest for Olympic gold since her debut at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. She was heading to a certain gold medal at the Turin Games when she slipped and fell attempting a flashy move during a jump on the final leg of the race, forcing her to settle for the silver medal.

From left silver medalist France’s Chloe Trespeuch, gold medalist United States’ Lindsey Jacobellis and bronze medalist Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine celebrate during the venue ceremony for the women’s snowboard cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Chloe Trespeuch of France won the silver medal Wednesday, while Canada’s Meryeta Odine took home the bronze.

Jacobellis’s win came hours after U.S. skier Mikeala Shiffrin, the most dominant women’s Alpine skier of her generation, endured another shocking failure in her quest to add to her Olympic gold medal collection. Shiffrin was just seconds into her first run in the women’s slalom competition when she missed a gate and skied off the course, resulting in her disqualification, and sat despondent and dejected on the side of the course for several minutes.

Petra Vlhova of Slovakia took the gold medal in the women’s slalom, with Katharina Leinsberger of Austria taking the silver medal and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland winning bronze.

Also Wednesday, 21-year-old Birk Ruud of Norway won the gold medal in the men’s freestyle big air competition, with American Colby Stevenson taking home the silver medal, six years after suffering massive injuries in a near-fatal automobile crash, including a fractured skull. Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut won the bronze medal.

American snowboarders Shuan White and Chloe Kim both qualified to advance to the finals of the men’s and women’s halfpipe competition, respectively. The 35-year-old White, a three-time gold medalist, is competing in his final Winter Olympics, while the 21-year-old Kim is seeking to defend the gold medal she won at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.

Five female ski jumpers have been disqualified from the Beijing Olympics after the International Ski Federation (FIS) ruled that their suits were too big.

Katharina Althaus, of Germany, soars through the air during a women’s normal hill ski jumping training session at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Germany’s Katharina Althaus, Silje Opseth and Anna Odine Stroem of Norway, Japanese jumper Sara Takanashi and Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz were all disqualified from taking part in the inaugural mixed team event, which featured teams with two women and two men each.

Althaus denounced the FIS decision, saying they “destroyed women’s ski jumping.”

Slovenia won the gold medal in the event, with the Russian Olympic Committee team winning silver and Canada the surprise bronze medal winners.

China Invites More People to Attend Olympics, Cites Success of Containment Measures

China said Tuesday it will invite more spectators to attend the Winter Olympics because of the success of strict containment measures within the bubble that separates event personnel from the public.

China did not sell tickets to the public due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus but chose a limited number of spectators who are required to comply with strict containment and prevention measures.

The announcement was made at a news conference at which Huang Chun, an official with the organizers’ pandemic prevention and control office, said a realistic goal for attendance at some venues before the Games are over is about 30%.

“We will bring in more spectators based on demand because the current COVID-19 situation within the ‘closed loop’ is under control,” he said.

A staff worker disinfects a hotel floor inside the Olympic “closed-loop” during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, Feb. 8, 2022.

In the southwestern Chinese city of Baise on Tuesday, no new cases of the coronavirus were reported, one day after a strict lockdown was ordered following a spike in daily infections three days earlier.

Authorities ordered residents in the city, near the border with Vietnam, to stay at home, leaving their residences only to buy essential items or to test for COVID-19. Local officials encouraged residents of the city of about 3.6 million to use delivery services rather than travel to a store when possible.

The lockdown comes as China hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics in the capital, Beijing, within a strict bubble to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Lockdowns in Hong Kong

Hong Kong announced Tuesday its most stringent lockdown measures since the pandemic began as new daily cases of infections have topped 600. Chief Executive Carrie Lam said gatherings of more than two families in private premises will be prohibited and public gatherings will be limited to two people. Places of worship and hair salons will be closed until February 24, when vaccine passes will be required to enter public places such as markets and restaurants, Lam said.

Restrictions in North America

The busiest land crossing from the United States to Canada remained closed Tuesday, Canada’s border agency said, one day after police in the Canadian capital of Ottawa seized thousands of liters of fuel as part of a crackdown to end a protest organized by truckers opposed to COVID-19 restrictions. Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency in the city on Sunday after the demonstrations entered their second week. Truck traffic has been blocking the streets of Ottawa since the demonstrations began on January 28.

Officials in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, California and Oregon have announced the lifting of indoor mask requirements for schools and other public places in coming weeks, as levels of infections fueled by the omicron variant of the coronavirus subside. The decisions, mostly announced on Monday, came as state and local governments struggle with which restrictions to cancel or maintain.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Monday that there are more than 399 million global COVID-19 infections and more than 5.7 million global COVID-19 deaths. The center said more than 10 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.

Spectacular opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

RPTV NEWS AGENCY team:

Journalist: Edgar Ramirez

Camera and Edition: Oscar Cavadia

BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Friday, February 4, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). With a spectacular ceremony and under strict biosafety regulations, the Olympic flame was lit in Beijing. 92 countries paraded in the imposing National Stadium in the Chinese capital, known as the Bird’s Nest, to kick off the Winter Olympics.

The winter appointment will have 109 tests in 15 different disciplines distributed in three venues.

Latin America will have 33 athletes in the sports competitions who will seek to give Latin America a medal for the first time in history. Laura Gómez, Michael Poettoz and Carlos Quintana will represent Colombia in these games that have been marked by the diplomatic boycott of several nations, due to the denunciations of human rights violations in China.

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2021

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New Zealand Wins Historic First Winter Olympics Gold

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — 

Zoi Sadowski Synnott gave New Zealand its first-ever Winter Olympics gold medal after winning the women’s snowboard slopestyle final at the Beijing Games on Sunday.

Sadowski Synnott trailed American Julia Marino going into the final round but pulled out an incredible performance to take the title with the last run of the competition.

The 20-year-old launched into a massive jump with her final trick to earn a winning score of 92.88, before being mobbed at the finish by Marino and bronze medalist Tess Coady of Australia.

A large New Zealand flag and another bearing the country’s black fern symbol could be seen among the crowd.

New Zealand had previously won one silver and two bronze medals at the Winter Olympics — including a third-place finish for Sadowski Synnott in the Big Air competition at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Sadowski Synnott dazzled the judges by grinding along rails, leaping off huge jumps and sliding along the roof of a traditional Chinese house made from snow en route to the gold.

Marino finished second on 87.68 points, while Coady took bronze on 84.15.

Two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson of the United States finished well out of the running in ninth place on 60.78 points.

Human Rights, Economic Ties Drive Decisions to Boycott – or Not – 2022 Olympics

SAN FRANCISCO — 

As much as China and the International Olympic Committee have pushed for the Olympic Games to be a neutral event, political controversy and boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics started months before Friday’s opening ceremonies.

But not everyone’s enmeshed in politics.

Boycott supporters, including human rights groups, are calling out Beijing over perceived strong-arm tactics toward Taiwan, anti-Beijing protesters in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong and the largely Muslim Uyghur population in the Chinese Xinjiang region.

Yet analysts say many developing countries value their economic ties with China, political divides notwithstanding, so they sent officials as well as athletes to stay on Beijing’s good side.

Australia has avoided sending government officials to the Feb. 4-20 Games over its belief that China is abusing human rights and refusing to hold talks on trade and diplomatic disputes. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that decision in early December, becoming one of the dozen-plus countries that announced diplomatic boycotts.

Most other countries with diplomatic boycotts are like Australia – with a record of concerns about human rights in China and enough wealth to get past any economic reprisals. The United States announced its diplomatic boycott in December. Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and some 10 European countries have followed. Although government officials will not be attending, these nations still let their athletes compete in the Winter Games.

“In Europe, I think it’s very important and here in the United States and in Australia, there are populations that really do care about human rights,” said Scott Harold, a Washington-based senior political scientist with the Rand Corporation research group. “This is not just a stick to beat China or an attempt to contain China’s rise. It’s really in part about living the values that you say guide your polity.”

Six Summer or Winter Olympiads over the event’s more than 100-year history have weathered boycotts.

Officials in Beijing see diplomatic boycotts as an inappropriate mix of sports and politics. They vowed reprisal against the United States in December.

Photo Gallery:

2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

The U.S. diplomatic boycott of its Games “seriously violated the principle of the political neutrality of sports established by the Olympic Charter and that the U.S. will pay a price for it,” state-run China Daily reported.

China has denied accusations of human rights abuses and described the reasons for some U.S. lawmakers’ call for a diplomatic boycott as “full of lies and false information” that is “based on ideology and political prejudice” according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Economic, regional ties

Chinese economic clout stops some governments from boycotting, said James Gomez, regional director of the Asia Centre, a Bangkok-based think tank. Countries throughout the developing world, especially in Asia and Africa, look to China’s $15.6 trillion economy as an irreplaceable market for exports and a source of direct investment.

“China is there, it’s big, so let’s just play nice even if they may not mean it because in the play of diplomacy everybody does the doublespeak,” Gomez said. “So, even if they may be aligned politically in a different way, they will still not publicly distance themselves from China.”

The Philippines, which has its own list of problems with China, decided to send three officials to the Games with its single athlete, alpine skier Asa Miller.

Filipinos had “hardly any public discussion about participating or not” in the Games this month, said Herman Kraft, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Beijing and Manila have sparred with occasional ship standoffs since 2012 for control over the resource-rich South China Sea between them.

“There might be some concern about reprisals, but I think it’s more of a preemptive thing in the sense that they’re not too interested in using the Olympics as a forum or an arena where relations with China might actually be made at risk,” Kraft said.

Other Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia and Vietnam, also vie with China over maritime sovereignty, but Malaysia has praised China for hosting the Olympics. Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter to Chinese officials wishing them a successful Winter Olympics, according to Vietnamese state media, Nhân Dân.

A “fear of further sanctions” may explain South Korea’s unwillingness to boycott the Games, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a Jan. 13 study. China sanctioned South Korea after its deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in 2016, the study says, costing tourism alone $15.7 billion.

Beijing kicked off the Olympics on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach appearing at an opening ceremony in the National Stadium.

Olympics a Sweet, Complex Homecoming for Chinese Diaspora

BEIJING — 

When Madison Chock looks outside here in the Chinese capital, the U.S. Olympic ice dancer sees glimpses of herself.

“Every time I’m on the bus, I’m just looking out and studying the city and just imagining my roots are here, my ancestors are here,” says Chock, whose father is Chinese Hawaiian, with family ties to rural China. “And it’s a very cool sense of belonging in a way, to just be on the same soil that your ancestors grew up on and spent their lives on.”

She adds: “It’s really special, and China holds a really special place in my heart.”

At the Beijing Winter Games, opening Friday, it’s a homecoming of sorts for one of the world’s most sprawling diasporas — often sweet and sometimes complicated, but always a reflection of who they are, where they come from and the Olympic spirit itself.

The modern Chinese diaspora dates to the 16th century, says Richard T. Chu, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Its members have ranged from the drivers of the colonial economy and laborer workforces on land and sea, to the highly educated who moved away for a chance at greater prosperity, to the unwanted baby girls adopted internationally during the government’s one-child policy.

“The Chinese diaspora is really very diverse, to the extent to that they maintain their Chinese-ness,” Chu says. “There’s no one kind of Chinese identity because each country has a unique kind of history.”

The question of ethnic Chinese identity is an especially delicate one for athletes with roots in Hong Kong and Taiwan. U.S. women’s singles figure skater Karen Chen, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan, says she identifies as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and uses those labels loosely and interchangeably.

Taiwan, which split from the mainland after a 1949 civil war that propelled the current Chinese government into power, is an island of 24 million people off China’s east coast.

FILE- Eileen Gu, of China, makes a run in the slopestyle finals, Dec. 17, 2021, during the Dew Tour freestyle skiing event at Copper Mountain, Colo.

It functions in many ways like a country with its own government and military. But China claims Taiwan as its territory, and only 14 countries recognize Taiwan as a nation. Most nations of the world, including the United States, have official ties with China instead.

Chen’s self-identification is not uncommon among the Taiwanese, as many trace their heritage back to mainland China. Some 32% of the islanders identify themselves as both Chinese and Taiwanese, according to an annual survey by National Chengchi University in Taipei.

While in Beijing, she’s pledged to speak as much Mandarin as possible and is proud to give a nod to her heritage on the ice.

“My free program is to ‘Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto,’ which is such a famous and classical piece that came from China … it’s kind of a Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet,” Karen Chen says. “It definitely relates to my background.”

The many athletes of Chinese descent here at the Beijing Games represent the many variations of the diaspora: some are one, two or many generations removed; others are biracial and multicultural.

And even similar backgrounds can diverge on the Olympic stage. For example, Nathan Chen and Eileen Gu are two superstar athletes fronting the Winter Games. While both were born and raised in the U.S. by Chinese immigrants and have fond memories of spending time in their ancestral homeland, Chen is competing for the U.S. team as a medal contender in men’s singles figure skating, and Gu is the hotshot freestyle skier competing for China.

FILE- Karen Chen competes in the women’s free skate program during the US Figure Skating Championships Jan. 7, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn.

Gu has raised eyebrows for switching to the China team after training with the U.S. team, but the San Francisco native — who speaks fluent Mandarin and makes yearly trips to China with her mom — is clear-eyed about how she defines herself.

“When I’m in China, I’m Chinese,” Gu told the Olympic Channel in 2020. “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American.”

For some, the Olympics in Beijing is the first time they’ll set foot in China, an unforgettable professional accomplishment on top of a very personal milestone.

That’s the case for U.S. women’s singles figure skater Alysa Liu, whose father, Arthur Liu, also longs to visit China. The elder Liu left his home country in his 20s as a political refugee because he had protested the Communist government following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

“I so much want to go to the Games and go back to China to visit my hometown,” said Arthur Liu in a phone interview from his home base in California. “I so much want to go back to the village I grew up in, to go to the high school that I went to, the college I went to. I so much want to go and have the spicy noodles on the side of the street.”

Arthur Liu eventually settled in the Bay Area, put himself through law school and nurtured one of America’s most promising athletes. Now his Chinese American daughter is set to make her Olympic debut in the women’s singles competition. He has no qualms about her competing in the Olympics in China, and no resentment toward a home country he still loves.

Like many biracial children, Alysa Liu used to wonder why she didn’t look like her parents though she has always identified as ethnically Chinese. Arthur Liu and his then-wife, who is also Chinese, decided to have children via surrogacy and sought white egg donors because Arthur Liu saw himself as a citizen of the world and wanted biracial children.

FILE- New York Islanders center Josh Ho-Sang (66) celebrates his goal against the Philadelphia Flyers with teammates in the third period of a preseason NHL hockey game in New York., Sept. 26, 2016.

In a culture that can be xenophobic, Arthur Liu says his daughter is warmly embraced by his home country, as Chinese fans and media consider Alysa Liu to be one of their own.

“I’m super happy the Chinese people welcome her and think highly of her,” Arthur Liu says.

The Olympics will also be the first time Josh Ho-Sang, the multiracial, multicultural Canadian ice hockey player, will visit China.

His paternal great-grandfather moved from mainland China to what is modern-day Hong Kong for business opportunities, then fell in love on vacation in Jamaica, which makes the Canadian hockey team forward one-eighth Chinese. From his mother’s side, Ho-Sang’s heritage is rooted in European, South American and Jewish cultures. For him to represent Canada as a “melting pot poster boy” is a testament to how inclusive the Olympic spirit has become.

“It really shows how far we’ve come as a society, to have these different faces representing home for everyone,” Ho-Sang says. “A hundred years ago, you would never see such diversity in each country that you see now. It’s a sign of hope and progress.”

At Beijing Olympics, Xi and Putin Strive for Unity Against US

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet Friday ahead of the opening ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, in what is expected to be a show of unity amid each country’s increasingly fraught relationship with the United States.

Though Russia and China do not share a formal alliance, both countries have drawn closer in recent years as they work to counter U.S. influence.

China has been more vocal in supporting Russia, even as Moscow masses more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, raising fears of a conflict. Russia has demanded Ukraine not join NATO and wants the military alliance to pull back troops from Eastern Europe.

Analysts say Russia-China cooperation could make it harder for the United States to punish Moscow in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An increase in U.S.-Russia hostilities could also divert the attention of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has identified China as his biggest foreign policy priority.

However, China may not welcome any major foreign policy distractions, either.

Beijing on Friday will host the opening ceremony for what will be more than two weeks of Olympic events. Perhaps even more importantly, Xi is in the midst of a crucially important season of domestic political maneuvering meant to shape what is expected to be his indefinite rule over China.

“Beijing wants stability and predictability. They will not welcome foreign turbulence,” said Ryan Hass, a China scholar at the U.S.-based Brookings Institution, in a thread on Twitter.

Xi and Putin, two strongman leaders who preside over authoritarian governments, have a long history. This will be the 38th meeting between the two men, according to Beijing.

In December, Xi said he welcomed the visit by Putin, whom he called his “old friend.” Putin was the first international leader to RSVP for the Beijing Olympics, after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games over China’s abuses against Uyghur Muslims.

In a letter published earlier this week in China’s official Xinhua news agency, Putin slammed the U.S.-led boycott, lamenting “attempts by a number of countries to politicize sports for their selfish interests.” Putin’s letter also declared that the Russia-China partnership had entered a “new era.”

Russia and China have a long history of working together to block U.S. positions at the United Nations Security Council, where all three are veto-wielding permanent members.

Most recently, China and Russia have found common ground over Ukraine. A recent statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” and called for an end to “Cold War mentality,” a clear reference to what it sees as U.S. foreign policy.

“The Chinese have moved progressively closer to Russian positions,” said Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This is a major shift from China. During Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and its invasion of Crimea in 2014, China was “not leaning so far in toward their partnership with Russia,” Feigenbaum said, speaking at an online forum.

“The China-Russia partnership looks a lot different to an American not just defense planner but strategic thinker than it would have just six or seven years ago,” he said.

However, China has also called for a lowering of tensions over Ukraine and proposed the implementation of the Minsk agreement, a 2014-15 deal to restore peace following a flare-up of violence along the Russia-Ukraine border.

“China is in a diplomatic logjam,” Hass said. “It would face difficulties and unwelcome turbulence from a conflict in Ukraine, but at the same time it wants to preserve strong relations with Russia and it does not want to do the U.S. any favors.”

The Week in Space: Winter Olympics Edition

NASA says global temperatures are on the rise, and that could spell trouble for future Winter Games. Plus, Australian astronomers discover an unidentified space object, and a pair of satellites touch the sky. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us a Winter Olympics-edition of The Week in Space.

Beijing Olympics Bubble Offers Rare, and Temporary Oasis of Media Freedom

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — 

Journalists at the Beijing Olympics have a tough assignment. Not only do they face a vast number of pandemic-related restrictions, they also will be working in one of the world’s least friendly countries for media.

Amid concerns about China’s surveillance and mistreatment of the press, many journalists at the Winter Games tell VOA they are using “burner” devices, such as phones and laptops completely wiped of personal data, to protect their digital privacy.

“I set up a burner computer … I have a burner phone. I even have a burner iPad with me,” said James Griffiths, Asia Correspondent for The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper. “I haven’t come across anyone who isn’t using at least some kind of burner device.”

Ahead of the Winter Olympics, the Committee to Protect Journalists warned that reporters’ phones and laptops could be contaminated with malware while in China. “Assume that everything you do online will be monitored,” read a CPJ advisory.

China ranked 177th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 World Press Freedom Index, only two places above North Korea. Not only does the country employ an army of censors to maintain its so-called “Great Firewall,” it is also the world’s largest jailer of journalists, with at least 128 detained, the organization said.

Earlier this week, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China released a report warning media freedom in the country is declining at “breakneck speed.” It said China-based foreign reporters faced physical assaults, cyber hacking, visa denials, and growing threats of legal action.

FILE – The National Stadium and the Beijing Olympic Tower are lit in red on the eve of the Chinese New Year, Jan. 31, 2022, China.

A bubble tradeoff

Foreign journalists at the Beijing Olympics have reported no problems so far, even if they have extremely limited mobility due to COVID-19 precautions.

“I’m currently connected to the Beijing 2022 Internet, which you can get across the various venues and as far as we can tell it’s completely uncensored. I don’t know how monitored it might be, of course, but at least things aren’t blocked,” said Griffiths.

“They said they were going to do this, and they have delivered. But then of course, we’re in a bubble,” he added.

Reporters at the Beijing Olympics won’t see much of China at all. Instead, they’ll be in a closed loop, taking only official buses from venue to venue. It’s part of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy, which has attempted to eliminate COVID-19, despite the emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant.

The restrictions have made journalism more difficult, in certain respects.

“It’s really hard to get a feel for what these Games mean to the people here in Beijing, because the only person you could really ask is a member of the workforce or a volunteer. Trying to report on what’s happening outside the closed loop is not an option,” said Donna Spencer, a sports reporter for The Canadian Press news agency.

Spencer says she, too, brought “clean” laptops and phones to Beijing and is using virtual private networks, or VPNs, which can provide a degree of privacy for Internet connections. So far, she says she’s experienced no problems.

“It’s this very weird sort of juxtaposition. We are free to report — within the closed loop,” she said.

The only way in

The conditions may not be ideal, but for many journalists it was the only way to get back into China, said Eryk Bagshaw, North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald.

“The Olympics presented an opportunity that we may not get again,” said Bagshaw, who also brought clean laptops, phones, and even new email addresses to Beijing.

In recent years, Beijing has delayed or refused the issuance of visas for foreign journalists. However, many journalists at the Beijing Games were issued visas through the International Olympics Committee.

But Bagshaw conceded that the bubble has greatly simplified reporting in China — for better and for worse.

“You’re essentially submitting yourself to such total surveillance that there’s almost freedom in that,” he said. “There’s cameras absolutely everywhere — you’re not looking over your shoulder wondering if you’re being tailed because you’re speaking to a Chinese dissident.”

Journalists Use Burner Phones to Protect Privacy at Beijing Olympics

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — 

Many foreign journalists at the Beijing Winter Olympics tell VOA they have brought “burner” devices, such as phones and laptops completely wiped of personal data, to protect their digital privacy. That’s because China has a long record of surveilling and restricting journalists.

Reporters at the Beijing Olympics will not see much of Beijing at all. Instead, they will be in a closed loop, taking official buses from venue to venue. COVID-19 policies aren’t the only challenge. Another is digital privacy, and journalists are taking extraordinary steps to protect it.

James Griffiths, Asia correspondent for The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, is currently in the Beijing bubble.

“I set up a burner computer, which is what we’re talking on right now,” he said. “I have a burner phone. I even have a burner iPad with me just to be sure so none of my usual identities are on that. Most of my accounts aren’t logged into while I’m here.”

Griffiths said it is difficult to find any reporter who is not using some type of burner device at the Olympic Games.

It’s a familiar routine for those reporting in China. This week, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China warned media freedom is declining at “breakneck speed.”

Ahead of the Games, the Committee to Protect Journalists warned reporters to assume everything they do online will be monitored.

So far, those reporting from the Olympics bubble have reported no problems, even if they have limited mobility.

“We can operate as reporters in the closed loop without restrictions,” said Donna Spencer, a sports reporter for The Canadian Press, “but the restrictions inherent in the closed loop prevent us from doing the kind of reporting that someone who is a foreign correspondent here would do a year around.”

It may not be ideal, but Australian journalist Eryk Bagshaw said it is an acceptable tradeoff.

“Essentially you’re submitting yourself to such total surveillance that there’s almost freedom in that,” Bagshaw said. “There’s cameras absolutely everywhere . . . you’re not looking over your shoulder wondering if you’re being tailed because you’re speaking to a Chinese dissident.”

But even this kind of reporting has its challenges.

During his interview with VOA, Bagshaw was interrupted by authorities reminding him of a required COVID-19 test.

“I just need to finish this video interview and then I’ll come down,” he told them. “I’ll be there in 10 minutes, if that’s OK. Thank you very much. Bye … there you go. Right on it.”

Just another challenge of reporting during a pandemic in China.

Beijing Olympics to Open Amid Hurdles

The 2022 Beijing Olympics kick off on Friday. But even before the opening ceremony, these Games face some hurdles. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.

Torch Relay for 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Begins

WASHINGTON — 

Beijing began its hosting duties of the 2022 Winter Olympics with the start of the traditional Olympic torch relay Wednesday.

Vice Premier Han Zheng began the event when he passed the iconic torch to 80-year-old Luo Zhihuan, China’s first internationally competitive speed skater and first winter sports world champion, at Olympic Foreign Park.

More than 1,000 torchbearers will carry the Olympic torch through three competition zones, including downtown Beijing and the city of Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei province before returning to Beijing for Friday’s opening ceremonies.

The three-day relay is far more constrained than other past relays due to concerns about COVID-19, with only selected members of the public allowed to witness the relay. By comparison, Beijing sent the torch on a global tour ahead of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics, which drew demonstrators at several stops protesting China’s human rights abuses.

This year, numerous countries have refused to send an official delegation to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, including the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada.

The Olympics will be held under a so-called “bubble” that requires all Olympic athletes, officials, staff and journalists to remain isolated to keep the virus from potentially spreading into the general public.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.

Snow Warnings as Winter Olympics Threatened by Climate Change

LONDON — 

The future of the Winter Olympics is under threat because of climate change, according to a new report from Britain’s Loughborough University.

The warning comes as Beijing prepares for the opening of the 2022 Games this week, the first time a city has hosted both the summer and winter events. It also will be the first Winter Olympics to use almost 100% artificial snow, with more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-cannons working to cover the slopes.

Artificial snow

Zhangjiakou, which lies 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing, will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Despite the bitter cold – temperatures reached minus 17 degrees Celsius this week – it rarely snows.

Olympic site manager Jacques Fournier is in charge of the snow machines. “Here has no humidity, and it’s very dry, and there’s a lot of wind,” Fournier told Reuters. “So, in that kind of condition, the goal and the target is really to make the snow compact, and to prepare rapidly to not let it [be blown away] by the wind.”

Inherent dangers

Winter resorts have increasingly turned to artificial snow to make up for a lack of natural snowfall. However, a new report from Britain’s Loughborough University warns that athletes’ safety could be at risk.

“In sports like biathlon or cross-country skiing or any of the freestyle events where an athlete is flinging themself into the air flipping around and falling, you would want the surface to be a little softer. And the problem with artificial snow is that it’s about 70% ice, compared to natural snow which is about 30% ice. And so, the surface is much, much harder,” said report co-author Madeleine Orr, a sports ecologist at Loughborough University, in an interview with VOA.

Snow-melt

American snowboarder Taylor Gold is preparing for Beijing. During his first Winter Olympics, in the Russian resort of Sochi in 2014, he recalls the halfpipe melting.

“They were spraying some chemicals on it to try to get it to stay in shape. But if you go back and watch that event, it’s clear, it was really warm. It was not ideal for snowboarding,” Gold recently told Associated Press. “It makes me sad that we need so much man-made snow to sustain winter sports,” he added.

A worker shovels snow in preparation for freestyle ski and snowboard events at Genting Snow Park prior to the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Zhangjiakou, China, Jan. 31, 2022.

American downhill skier Lindsey Vonn, who won three Olympic golds until her retirement in 2019, has trained and competed all over the world. She says snow is becoming harder to track down. “You go to South America, where we use to train every summer, August, September. They’ve had no snow for several years in a row, like none,” Vonn told the Associated Press.

Unsuitable climates

Critics say the climates of both Sochi and Beijing are unsuitable to host the Winter Olympics. But even high altitude, mountain ski resorts that have traditionally hosted the games are at risk because of climate change.

“The northeast of the U.S. for example, and eastern Canada – we are losing significant amounts of snow there,” says Orr. “And then in places like the Rockies and the [European] Alps, we just don’t have quite as much as we used to. So, the challenge moving forward is going to be where can we put these events. And with the Winter Olympics, we’re already kind of there.”

Environmental damage

Orr says artificial snow also causes environmental damage.

“When you put artificial snow in a place that doesn’t have any natural snow at all, like Beijing, you’re putting a whole lot of water into a place where that soil and those plants are not expecting it. And previous research has shown that that can be damaging to local wildlife.”

“But we also expect that when you’re creating that much snow, the energy usage is extraordinary. The amount of water is extraordinary. In this Olympics we’re expecting 49 million gallons [185 million liters] of water to be used – and that’s if things go well. So, if they have a few hot days and need to create a little bit of extra snow to make up and compensate for some melt during the games, we could see that number rise above 50 million gallons [189 million liters],” Orr told VOA.

Carbon-neutral Olympics

The Chinese organizers insist the games will be carbon neutral. All venues are expected to be powered by renewable energy. Ice rinks will use natural CO2 technology for cooling, instead of ozone-damaging hydrofluorocarbons. The organizers say the latest snow machines use 20% less water.

Some athletes prefer artificial snow. “The snow is actually amazing, the man-made stuff. I think because of how cold it is, you have to be really aggressive with how you ride, but you just have to adapt,” said Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, a downhill snowboarder competing for New Zealand at the Beijing Games.

Olympic organizers also will have to adapt. The Loughborough University report warns that by 2050, fewer than half of the resorts that have hosted the Winter Olympics until now will have viable snowfall.

Artificial Snow Warnings as Beijing Olympics Threatened by Climate Change

As Beijing prepares for the opening of the Winter Olympics this week, scientists are warning that the future of the games is under threat – because of climate change. Henry Ridgwell reports. Producer: Marcus Harton

Activists Urge Athletes to Speak Out at Beijing Olympics

BEIJING — 

Human rights activists issued a call to action against the Beijing Olympics on Friday, imploring athletes and sponsors to speak out against what they call the “genocide games.”

Speaking at an online press conference organized by the rights group Human Rights Watch, activists representing Chinese dissidents and the minority Uyghur and Tibetan populations urged international attendants to voice their opposition to China’s hosting of the Games, which begin next week.

“The 2022 Winter Olympics will be remembered as the genocide games,” said Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.

In this image taken from video footage of an online press conference by Human Rights Watch on AP Video, Teng Biao, visiting professor at the University of Chicago, speaks about the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Jan. 28, 2022.

“The CCP’s purpose is to exactly turn the sports arena into a stage for political legitimacy and a tool to whitewash all those atrocities,” he added, referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

China’s crackdown under hardline ruler Xi Jinping has been felt across wide swaths of society. Hong Kong authorities crushed anti-government protests in the city in 2019, and the central government in Beijing passed a national security law aimed at stifling dissent, leading to the arrest of activists and disbandment of civil society groups.

Meanwhile, in the country’s western region of Xinjiang, an estimated 1 million people or more — most of them Uyghurs — have been confined in reeducation camps in recent years, according to researchers.

An independent, unofficial body set up by a prominent British barrister to assess evidence on China’s alleged rights abuses against the Uyghur people concluded in December that the Chinese government committed genocide. China has consistently denied any human rights abuses in the region and has said it carried out its actions to counter extremism in the region in order to ensure people’s safety.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has hit back at the rights group for its continued calls to boycott the Olympics, saying that “the so-called human rights group is biased against China and keen on making mischief. Lies and rumors it fabricated are unpopular. Its egregious acts that harm the Olympic cause will never succeed.”

The Foreign Ministry has also said the Olympics should not be politicized. Yet the competition is already facing a diplomatic boycott led by the U.S., whose relationship with China has nosedived in the past few years.

Activists have failed to achieve a full boycott of the games, but have continued to speak out.

FILE – Human right groups gather on the United Nations international Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, 2021, to call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 in front of the Bank of China building in Taipei, Taiwan.

“Your silence is their strength. This is what they want more than anything: that the world will play by China’s rules, that we will follow China’s lead, that we will look away from these atrocities and crimes for the sake of business as usual,” said Lhadon Tethong, director of the Tibet Action Institute, at the press conference Friday.

She appealed directly to athletes from the U.S., UK, France and others to speak.

“I personally believe that you should use your platform and your privilege and this historic opportunity. You have to speak out against the wave of genocide,” she said.