Winter Olympics 2022

[GeneChing]

I know, I know, we don't really care about the Winter Olympics here. No martial events really, unless you count biathlon.

But still...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBwxeqaFZMY

[GeneChing]

Luv it when an OT thread becomes forum relevant.


Jackie Chan Records a Song for 2022 Winter Olympic Games (http://english.cri.cn/12394/2015/03/10/4021s869399.htm)
2015-03-10 13:14:27 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Li Shaotong

http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2015/03/10/0a52894bc00c43c484d9a72cd56d92ac.jpg
Famous Chinese actor Jackie Chan [Photo: Beijing Evening News]

Famous Chinese actor and national political advisor Jackie Chan took time off during the two sessions and rushed off to a recording studio in Beijing's Chaoyang District yesterday to record "Wake up Winter", the theme song for the application of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

"In the morning, I am working for the two sessions; in the afternoon, for the application of Olympics Games", Jackie Chan said with a sense of humor.

"Wake up Winter is actually a call to people around the world, an incessant eagerness for the Olympic Spirit and a longing for friendship between people and countries," songwriter Wang Jiuping explained.

A large number of well-known musicians both domestically and internationally are working on the song including Zhao Jialin, one of the main composers for "Little Apple", the song which went viral last year.

[GeneChing]

...but in the L.A. Times. :cool:



Jackie Chan lends his voice to China's Olympic bid (http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-jackie-chan-china-olympic-bid-20150312-story.html)

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5501b237/turbine/la-sp-sn-jackie-chan-china-olympic-bid-2015031-001/750/750x422
Jackie Chan appears at an event in Taipei, Taiwan, to promote his new movie "Dragon Blade" on Feb. 12. (Chiang Ying-ying / Associated Press)
By David Wharton
Chan has joined in the recording of a song that will be used to help promote China's 2022 Olympic campaign

The bid committee hoping to bring the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing has pulled out a secret weapon.

Jackie Chan.

The action movie star -- one of his country's best-known personalities -- has joined in the recording of a song, "Wake up Winter," that will be used to help promote China's campaign.

"'Wake up Winter' is actually a call to people around the world, an incessant eagerness for the Olympic spirit and a longing for friendship between people and countries," songwriter Wang Jiuping told China's state-run radio news service.

Officials have called upon numerous musicians to participate, including composer Zhao Jialin, who had an Internet hit with "Little Apple" last year.

Beijing is competing against Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the 2022 Games.

[GeneChing]

Hard to imagine where we will all be in 2022.


Get hyped! Beijing releases 10 songs promoting Winter Olympics bid, feat. Jackie Chan (http://shanghaiist.com/2015/05/29/beijing-releases-10-songs-promoting-winter-olympics.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/olympic_music_week2.jpg

In a move to spread Olympic and winter sport spirit across the country and to promote its own bid, Beijing's Olympic committee has released 10 tunes that are certain to be the songs of Winter 2022, highlighted by a performance by pop sensation and all-around Renaissance man Jackie Chan.

What Beijing may lack in snow or winter sports culture, it certainly makes up for in self-promotion. According to the Global Times, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Bid Committee shifted through a "plethora" of submissions before unveiling the 10 most outstanding yesterday to kick off Olympic Music Week.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/olympic_music_week.jpg

The star-studded list of performers includes Singapore's first celebrity anti-drug ambassador, who recorded the (Olympic) stadium anthem "Wake Up Winter." Proving himself worthy of his title as dean of his very own arts academy, Chan discussed the song with the media, lecturing that it imparts two messages: spreading world peace through the promotion of Olympic values and stoking the flames of China's newfound passion for winter sports.

The lyrics were written by veteran Chinese Olympic songwriter Wang Pingjiu, who also worked with Chan on "Welcome to Beijing" in 2008. Chan also recorded the inspiring one-year countdown song to the 2008 Summer Olympics "We Are Ready." Only thing the guy likes more than Olympics is a good cheek rub.

"Wake Up Winter" was also reportedly part of the soundtrack for the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) visit to Beijing in March, so it's no wonder they left impressed.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/olympic_music_week3.jpg

Other performers include: veteran pop singer Sun Nan, young heartthrob Lu Han and solo singer Tan Jing. Most of the other song selections seem to play on themes of cold weather and love. We are partial to Kang Zhuqing's "Pursuing a Dream of Snow."

Even before the release of these 10 hits-to-be, Beijing was considered to be the favorite over its only rival Almaty, Kazakhstan. While the joint bid made by Beijing and China's smog capital Zhangjiakou in Hebei has some worried, it doesn't seem like small problems like air pollution and a shaky human rights record are of much concern to the IOC. The committee will announce their decision for 2022 host city in July at a session in Malaysia.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/beijing-olympics-2022-logo-002.jpg

Here's a montage of the 10 chosen songs. Tell us your favorite. We honestly can't choose.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=146&v=E_szUDYQ9_k

[GeneChing]

...but Jackie is all over it. :cool:


https://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/thebeijinger/blog-images/313215/p1010049_copy.jpg

Jackie Chan and Lang Lang on Hand for Official Unveiling of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Logos (https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2017/12/17/jackie-chan-lang-lang-on-hand-unveiling-2022-beijing-winter-olympics)
Tom Arnstein | Dec 17, 2017 1:00 pm

On Friday, Dec 14, athletes, government representatives, Beijing 2022 Organising Committee (BOCOG) members, and the press came together at Beijing's Water Cube for the official unveiling of the official 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games emblems.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/p1010034.jpg
Fans posed for photographs with athletes prior to the unveiling

The event got off to a slow start with an initial gong signaling to the only half-present crowd that the run of celebrities, songs, and presentations were about to begin. At that time, 50 or so child choir singers shuffled onto the stage but wouldn't be permitted to sing their unity-espousing song, accompanied by the world-renowned concert pianist Lang Lang, for another 40 minutes.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/p1010046.jpg
CPC Secretary of Beijing Cai Qi demonstrates two screens are better than one

However, once the initial pomp finished, what followed was a quick succession of speeches, including a pre-recorded message from International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, reminding attendees that Beijing is on track to become the first ever city to host the summer and winter Olympic Games. Then it was the turn of Cai Qi, BOCOG president and Communist Party Secretary of Beijing, to drum up excitement before the final run of Spring Festival gala-type numbers.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/p1010047_copy.jpg
Jackie Chan sings "Wake Up Winter"

The most notable of those performances was Jackie Chan's rousing "Wake Up Winter" alongside snowflake-twirling, sequined dancers. It also took gold for the most convincing live act, what with everyone else lip-synching their way through and a further reminder that when it comes to conveying an assertive appearance, China will leave nothing to chance.

Before the crowd had time to blast out grainy sights of Big Brother, the star-studded stage backdrop parted to give the audience what they'd been waiting for, the official 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics logo.

https://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/p1010049_copy.jpg

And here it is:

https://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/screen_shot_2017-12-17_at_9.48.24_am.jpg

Said to have taken inspiration from the character 冬, winter, the colorful and lively ribbon-like lines of the emblem also outline the figure of a downhill skier; knees bent, poles horizontal, and head down.

The Paralympics logo is more vivid and is said to be based on the character for fly, 飞. The lower legs of the skier in the logo above have been replaced by two semicircles, representing a wheel in motion.

https://www.thebeijinger.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/winterolympics.jpg

The logos were designed by Li Cunzhen, who also had a hand in creating the emblem for 2014's Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, and were chosen from 4,506 submissions from around the world, according to olympic.org.


I'm going to copy some of these Winter Olympics 2022 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68201-Winter-Olympics-2022) posts to our fledgling Winter Olympics (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70589-Winter-Olympics) thread, just to help it grow for now.

[GeneChing]

Chinese sports authorities recruit Shaolin monks, teach them snow and ice disciplines to boost Beijing Winter Olympics squads (https://www.firstpost.com/sports/chinese-sports-authorities-recruit-shaolin-monks-teach-them-snow-and-ice-disciplines-to-boost-beijing-winter-olympics-squads-4859671.html)
Sports Agence France-Presse Jul 31, 2018 18:58:10 IST

Shanghai: A Chinese kung-fu monk rockets down the halfpipe, his robe fluttering behind him, bald head glistening in the sun, to claim snowboard Olympic gold.

https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Monks-in-snow-380-Reuters.jpg
Representational image. Reuters

It may sound like a sequel to hit comedy film "Cool Runnings", but for Beijing 2022 hosts China this is no joke. China is so worried about its lack of winter Olympians and losing face on home soil that it is plundering the martial arts schools of Buddhist monasteries in the search for a star.

Frantic sports chiefs have plucked 125 teenage students from the renowned Songshan Shaolin Temple in the central province of Henan in the hope their martial arts prowess can translate into medal-winning performances on the snow.

The latest batch of 23 students left for Beijing on Monday for initial training in freestyle skiing and other Olympic disciplines, the Henan Daily newspaper said. The best among them will then venture to New Zealand to hone their skills.

Medal-hungry China is turning to martial arts training schools as part of what it is calling "cross-discipline candidate selection" for Beijing 2022. More than 600 prospective Olympians — boys and girls — have been hand-picked so far in Henan alone, the Xinhua news agency said.

China's General Administration of Sport, the government's top sports body, said the nationwide search was designed to "enrich the talent pool for ice and snow disciplines". Officials are also considering asking talented skateboarders, acrobats and trampolinists to switch disciplines as part of the ramped-up recruitment drive.

It is easy to see why they came up with the idea, seeing as at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February, China won just nine medals, only one of them gold.


Updated Date: Jul 31, 2018 18:58 PM

THREADS
Winter Olympics 2022 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68201-Winter-Olympics-2022)
Winter Olympics (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70589-Winter-Olympics)
Shaolin and the Olympics (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48436-Shaolin-and-the-Olympics)

[GeneChing]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!


Beijing is trying to rid city of Chinglish before 2022 Winter Olympics (https://shanghai.ist/2018/12/04/beijing-is-trying-to-rid-city-of-chinglish-before-2022-winter-olympics/)
Enjoy them while you can, folks!
by Alex Linder December 4, 2018 in News

https://i1.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish2.jpg?w=1024&ssl=1

In order to make the city a more foreigner-friendly place, Beijing is in the midst of a colossal crackdown against the hilarious, ubiquitous English mistranslations known as Chinglish.

On December 1st, 2017, a new English translation standard went into effect in China. Since then, Beijing’s foreign affairs office claims to have vetted more than two million Chinese characters on bilingual signs to ensure that they have been properly translated into English.

Back in April, the city even launched a website to allow residents to report Chinglish signs that they spotted around town.

https://i2.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish7.jpg?w=640&ssl=1

Much like a similar campaign launched a decade ago ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this crackdown is aimed at cleaning up the city’s signage ahead of foreign visitors arriving en masse for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Of course, Chinglish signs are part of the charm of living in China and many foreigners here will be sad to see the mistranslations go. So enjoy while you can, folks:

https://i2.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish6.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i2.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish5.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i0.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish8.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i1.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish12.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i2.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish10.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i0.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish13.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i0.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish9.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
https://i0.wp.com/shanghai.ist/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinglish4.jpg?w=511&ssl=1


THREADS
Chinglish (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?66588-Chinglish)
Winter Olympics 2022 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68201-Winter-Olympics-2022)

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEFgEre-cY

THREADS
Monkey King (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50181-Monkey-King)
Winter Olympics 2022 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68201-Winter-Olympics-2022)

[GeneChing]

Beijing is planning to host another Olympics. Clashes over human rights are back, too. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/china-beijing-olympics-boycott-uighur/2020/10/07/e89bda44-0858-11eb-8719-0df159d14794_story.html)https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/4NQZZ5QILII6XG7GZ4S7WQU7DI.jpg&w=916
Han Zirong, secretary general of Beijing 2022, waves the Olympic flag during a ceremony Feb. 27, 2018, to mark the start of the flag’s tour for the 2022 Winter Olympics. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
By
Gerry Shih
Oct. 8, 2020 at 3:00 a.m. PDT
TAIPEI, Taiwan — In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, activists and others called for a boycott to protest China's treatment of Tibetan minorities and its human rights record at home and abroad.

Beijing is now deep in planning to reprise its Olympic host role for the 2022 Winter Games. And again, it’s facing a chorus of condemnation over its mass indoctrination and labor program for ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang and its security crackdown in Hong Kong.

But if the demands for a boycott haven’t changed since 2008, China — and its relationship with the world — have.

Twelve years after the Communist Party weathered criticism to hold a lavish, and ultimately successful, coming-out party on the world stage, a more powerful and globally influential Chinese government is squaring off against a more united and skeptical bloc of critics, particularly in the West.

Negative views of China rise sharply in developed countries

A mass boycott of the Winter Games does not appear imminent. But widespread human rights concerns — accentuated by geopolitical rivalries — suggest the 14 months leading up to the Feb. 4, 2022, opening ceremony will be particularly fraught.

Calls to cancel
Last month, more than 160 human rights groups asked the International Olympic Committee to move the Winter Games. Other demands to scrap the Beijing Olympiad have come from leaders of a newly formed multinational coalition of lawmakers called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which includes Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Iain Duncan Smith, a member of the British Parliament, and legislators from the European Union, Japan, Australia and other countries.

In March, 12 senators led by Rick Scott (R-Fla.) submitted a bipartisan resolution asking the International Olympic Committee to rebid the Games.

On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab made headlines in Britain when he said he needed to gather more evidence on whether Chinese actions in Xinjiang amounted to genocide and would not rule out a boycott.

“Generally speaking, my instinct is to separate sport from diplomacy and politics, but there comes a point when it is not possible,” Raab said. He was speaking to reporters shortly after 39 countries, led by Germany, condemned China’s crackdown in Xinjiang and Hong Kong at the United Nations.

Reinhard Bütikofer, a member of the European Parliament from Germany and part of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said legislators from the alliance this summer organized news conferences, rallies and hearings at every stop of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s European tour to counter the Chinese official’s talking points, and might organize again around the Olympics.

In 2008, Bütikofer said, Olympic organizers promised that China would improve its rights record as part of the agreement to hold the Games. In the decade since, China has moved in a “totally opposite” direction, he said.

“When you look at how the IOC justified the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, you really wonder how they could sustain the decision on 2022,” Bütikofer said. “Some of us will make the public remember that.”

Analysis: What the U.S. election means for China

A Western-led boycott in 2022 would hark back to the final decade of the Cold War, when the United States and its allies walked out of the 1980 Summer Games to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Communist countries retaliated by skipping the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

China’s critics have reached further back in history to argue against the 2022 Games.

Since 2008, human rights activists have warned that China hosting the Olympic Games would be compared in hindsight to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, which Hitler used to burnish Nazi Germany’s image as a rejuvenated industrial and military power.

Those comparisons are resurfacing with resonance at a moment when several governments, including the Trump administration, are weighing whether to designate the Chinese repression of the mostly-Muslim Uighurs as genocide.

Pompeo seeks unity to counter China’s growing clout, but don’t expect an Asian NATO

Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese government enjoyed the world’s “benefit of the doubt” in the 2000s, as it was seen as embarking on a fitful journey toward liberalization after its 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization.

In the run-up to 2008, Chinese officials also pledged to make certain concessions, such as letting foreign journalists report freely and allowing petitioners to openly protest in a designated zone in Beijing.

'Radically different'
But in the years since, politics in China tightened sharply after the ascent of President Xi Jinping in 2013. Across the developed world, public opinion of China reached a record low this year, a stark reversal of the favorable or mixed views of the 2000s, according to a study released this week by the Pew Research Center.

“That willingness to give the benefit of the doubt has evaporated,” Richardson said. “Look at Hong Kong or Xinjiang now versus in 2008 or even two years ago. The order of magnitude of violations is radically different and far more disturbing.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/CICIBCAIXYI6XBM37HBHVPTDRU.jpg&w=916
A worker carries a scaffolding pole at the National Speed Skating Oval on Sept. 23. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
At the same time, the current Chinese leadership is less amenable to making concessions and more influential in the international arena, including at the United Nations. Last year, China secured support from 50 ambassadors, mostly from developing countries wary of the West and buttressed by Chinese economic ties, to extol its Xinjiang policy not as an infringement on human rights, but a boon to social stability.

Last month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin dismissed criticism of China’s qualifications to host the Games by pointing out the support it has drummed up from countries including Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“By linking the so-called human rights issue with the Winter Olympics in an attempt to pressure China, certain organizations have made the mistake of politicizing sporting events,” Wang said. “That goes against the spirit of the Olympic charter and disrupts and jeopardizes the progress of the global human rights cause.”

Officials at the International Olympic Committee, already under pressure from the Tokyo Games that have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, have also criticized boycott calls as generally unproductive. IOC President Thomas Bach told reporters in July that he was “fully confident” China would deliver on its “commitment” to respecting human rights.

“Boycotts and discrimination because of political background or nationality are once again a real danger,” Bach said. “A sporting boycott only punishes the athletes of the boycotting country and deprives their people of sharing in the success, pride and joy of their Olympic team.”

The hashtag “Boycott Winter Olympics” in China’s social media network Weibo has been completely censored. But a few essays in the WeChat ecosystem, analyzing the political context of past boycotts and lamenting the mounting controversy over the 2022 games, have cropped up in the past week.

'Anti-globalization is the trend'
In a post entitled “American imperialists are trying another harmful trick,” the nationalist world affairs blog Telling International Jokes noted how the Olympics went from a showcase for China in 2008 to a cudgel in a “New Cold War” in 2020.

The 2008 Games “let the world know about the all-new China and how China could make the world a better place. Globalization was the biggest theme in the world in 2008,” wrote the author. “Fast forward to 2020, and anti-globalization is the trend. Political and economic friction between China and the West has only worsened. The ‘New Cold War’ has only intensified.”

Nicholas Sarantakes, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College who has studied Olympic boycotts and the author of “Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War,” said the Olympics have long been intensely politicized. Nearly half of the Games in history have been subject to some kind of political action, said Sarantakes, who cautioned against a boycott.

“Sending the IOC to Beijing is politically tone deaf, but the reality is the IOC is boxed in a corner,” he said, adding that it would be highly unlikely for Olympic organizers to move the event, which was given to Beijing over Almaty, Kazakhstan, after other contenders dropped out six years ago.

So what is likely? “I have every expectation that criticisms and political posturing will increase and not stop until the Olympics are over,” Sarantakes said.



Gerry Shih
Gerry Shih is the interim bureau chief in Beijing for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2018, he was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Beijing.

Still saddened that the 2020 Olympics (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64475-2020-Tokyo-Olympics) didn't happen.

[highlypotion]

Looking forward to this event. Hopefully, it will push through.

[GeneChing]

U.S.
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Boycott Looming From 'Genocide' and COVID (https://www.newsweek.com/2022-beijing-winter-olympics-boycott-looming-genocide-covid-1503868)
BY SCOTT MCDONALD ON 2/16/21 AT 10:49 PM EST

Politicians from two powerful western countries have begun initiating a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not move the Games to another country. It started with politicians in the United Kingdom, followed by one proposal in the United States Congress.

So far, two major Olympic committees don't agree, saying they are against Olympic boycotts—regardless of the reason. The United States and Canadian Olympic committees have already said they do not support such boycotts.

China has already spent billions in infrastructure, and the country hopes to use the Winter Olympics to coincide with the Chinese New Year in 2022. The two elements would allow China to showcase its centuries-long tradition along with state-of-the-art technology. Beijing would also become the first city to ever hold both the Summer Olympics (2008) and the Winter Olympics. Countries have held multiple Games, but a single city has never held both.

However, other countries point toward China's recent controversies as a way to keep their athletes, coaches, fans and families from visiting China or any of the host cities near Beijing.

Mike Waltz, a Republican representative from Florida, said Monday he doesn't believe the United States "cannot" in good conscience participate in the quadrennial Games hosted by a "brutal dictatorship." This follows British politicians supporting a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Games.

Waltz filed a resolution urging the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to "propose the transfer of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to a site other than within the People's Republic of China." Should moving to another country not happen, then Waltz said the U.S. and other countries should "withdraw" from the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The USOPC issued a statement on February 4 that said it was against a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. "We oppose Games boycotts because they have been shown to negatively impact athletes while not effectively addressing global issues. We believe the more effective course of action is for the governments of the world and China to engage directly on human rights and geopolitical issues."

The resolution filed by Waltz says the Chinese Communist Party has extended "repressive policies through censorship, intimidation and the detention of individuals and groups for exercising their fundamental human rights, especially in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and Hong Kong."

The resolution also identifies mass internment camps, forced labor, efforts to intensify persecution of campaigns that bring religion into China and those under watchful control during the spread of COVID-19.

"Hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics Games in the PRC, where organized atrocities in the XUAR are ongoing; where the freedoms of Hong Kong's citizens are being trampled; where the fundamental right to worship is brutally persecuted; and in the wake of the ongoing global devastation from COVID-19; would be immoral, unethical and wrong," the resolution states.

https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/1633318/beijing-olympics.webp?w=790&f=645322a76b1fec2e6aeca451e8483812
People celebrate the one year countdown to the Olympics at Tiananmen Square on August 8, 2007 in Beijing, China. Various events are being held in the Chinese capital to celebrate the one-year countdown to the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games today.
PHOTO BY GUANG NIU/GETTY IMAGES

Although the relationship between Washington and Beijing has splintered over the last several years, a U.S.-led boycott could drive an even bigger wedge between the two countries.

Though the Summer Olympics have been boycotted before—notably by the U.S. in 1980 and the U.S.S.R. in 1984—a Winter Olympics boycott would be unprecedented. If other countries follow suit and also boycotted the 2022 Winter Games, it could have a crippling and embarrassing effect for Beijing, which is scheduled to become the only city to ever hold both a Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. The 2008 Summer Olympics still have one of the most-memorable Opening Ceremonies that was held at the famous Beijing National Stadium, also known as the "Birds Nest."

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place Feb. 4-20, 2022, in three different cities in northern China. Russia is not allowed to compete because of past doping allegations, which leaves countries mostly from the West. If the U.S. were to boycott, many European countries could follow the United States' lead.

A multi-national boycott could have a ripple effect into China's economic forecast that could lead to a mammoth financial loss for the country. China has already built a high-speed rail line to connect Beijing to Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, which are the other two cities scheduled to host events for the 2022 Games.

When will the call for a Kung Fu boycott happen?

threads
Winter-Olympics-2022 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68201-Winter-Olympics-2022)
covid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71666)

[GeneChing]

Why the world must boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 (https://nypost.com/2021/03/13/why-the-world-must-boycott-the-beijing-winter-olympics-in-2022/?utm_campaign=applenews&utm_medium=inline&utm_source=applenews)
By Steven W. Mosher March 13, 2021 | 9:28am | Updated
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/chinese-gynmastic-team.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1236&h=820&crop=1
Stadiums built in Beijing for the 2008 Games (pictured) were later used to host public executions.Alamy

The 2022 Winter Olympic games are currently slated to be held in Beijing, China, next February. But the voices demanding that they be moved to a more freedom-friendly venue are growing louder.

Last September, a coalition of 160 human rights groups called for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to “reverse its mistake in awarding Beijing the honor of hosting the Winter Olympics.”

The Trump administration also pushed for the IOC to move the games, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo now wants the United States to boycott the upcoming games entirely.

Two weeks ago the Canadian Parliament joined the chorus, urging the IOC to strip Beijing of the right to host the 2022 Games unless it ends its genocide against the Uighurs.

The ongoing Uighur genocide — carried out by mass incarceration, forced abortion, and modern-day slavery — tops the list of what Pompeo calls the Chinese Communist Party’s “nasty activity.” But it certainly does not exhaust it.

Holding the Olympics in Beijing is an insult to every Tibetan nationalist, every Chinese political dissident, every Catholic, Christian, or Buddhist who languishes in China’s prisons because of their personal convictions.

Human rights conditions in China today are in many respects worse than when I came face-to-face with China’s brutal one-child policy in the early 1980s.

They are worse than they were in 2008, when the Summer Olympics were held in Beijing.

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/olympic-preparation.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=2000
To spruce up China’s image before the 2008 Olympics, authorities drove out illegal immigrants — and even painted the dead grass green.
Getty Images
And they are likely to get even worse in the months to come as the Winter Olympics grows ever nearer.

For me, one of the most disturbing aspects of the 2008 Games was the construction of new stadiums. You see, stadiums in China are used not just for athletic competitions, but for public executions.

Like the Colosseum of Ancient Rome, these stadiums double as killing fields, where thousands of people have been executed without due process. China continues to execute more people each year than the rest of the world combined.

The day of an execution, the stadium stands are filled with people. They are there by official order, in order to witness what happens to those who break the Party’s law.

The prisoner — sometimes there are several — is marched in and forced to kneel in the middle of the field. After his crimes are read, he is killed by a single shot to the back of the head.

The West may view the upcoming Winter Olympics as a celebration of the human spirit, but the Chinese Communist Party views it as a massive propaganda exercise.

The Party’s chief aim will be to spruce up the country’s image abroad — badly tarnished by the coronavirus pandemic — and to generate nationalistic zeal at home.

We know the playbook that the Party will follow. We’ve seen it before.

In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, Beijing received a face lift, buildings were refurbished, and illegal urban residents were driven out of the city and their hovels demolished.

The authorities even painted the dead grass green.

At the same time that they were sweeping the streets, they swept up dissidents of all kinds, banishing them to labor camps and prisons.

This time around the controls will be even tighter. The international media will arrive in Beijing to find the city sterilized of all possible protest.

More surveillance cameras will be installed, more facial recognition technology utilized, and more AI deployed. The population in and around the games will be monitored in real time, and any dissent or unrest snuffed out before it occurs.

All this is to say that the games will not bring change to China, but instead generate a new wave of persecution.

Once the Winter Olympics of 2022 are over and the athletes and the international press leave, the playing fields will once again become killing fields as well.

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China’s oppressive treatment of the Uighur population will only get worse in the run-up to the 2022 Olympics.
AFP via Getty Images
At their highest level, the Olympics celebrate the human spirit. It is not just about ice hockey or the toboggan run, the giant slalom or ice skating, but the efforts of individual men and women to be the best that they can be in every field of human endeavor.

This is why the games should always be held in countries where human rights are respected. This is why Beijing, where that overarching spirit is violated every day, is such a bad choice for the Winter Olympics of 2022.

The Chinese Communist Party should not be allowed to hide its atrocities behind the drama of athletic competition.

Because if medals were given to nations for committing human rights abuses, China would win the gold every time.

Steven W. Mosher is the President of the Population Research Institute and the author of “Bully of Asia: Why China’s ‘Dream’ is the New Threat to World Order”
Weird for the US to call out PRC on immigration issues but we shall see if this makes any headway.

[GeneChing]

US announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics, citing ‘ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’ (https://whitehousewire.com/2021/12/07/us-announces-diplomatic-boycott-of-beijing-olympics-citing-ongoing-genocide-and-crimes-against-humanity-in-xinjiang-3/)

about 2 hours ago

The U.S. will engage in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics in response to China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, and other human rights abuses,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced on Monday.

“U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC’s egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can’t do that,” Psaki said during a press briefing.

The Biden administration’s diplomatic boycott will not prevent American athletes from competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.

While some lawmakers praised the Biden administration’s decision, others said that the move was inadequate, and called for the U.S. to carry out a total boycott.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lauded the president’s “strong leadership” in a statement, saying that the U.S. and the rest of the globe “cannot give our official imprimatur to these games or proceed as if there is nothing wrong with holding the Olympics in a country perpetrating genocide and mass human rights violations.”

But Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said the U.S. should totally boycott the Olympics in Beijing.

“The President has once again opted for a half measure, when bold leadership was required,” Cotton said in a statement about the administration’s move. “The United States should fully boycott the Genocide Games in Beijing. American businesses should not financially support the Chinese Communist Party and we must not expose Team USA to the dangers of a repugnant authoritarian regime that disappears its own athletes.”

The Global Times, an outlet that is viewed as a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, according to U.S. News and World Report, tweeted about the U.S. diplomatic boycott that, “… Chinese are relieved to hear the news, because the fewer US officials come, the fewer viruses will be brought in.”

#COMMENTnTo be honest, Chinese are relieved to hear the news, because the fewer US officials come, the fewer viruses will be brought in.https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1467922290071453699u00a0u2026
— Global Times (@Global Times)
1638815504

COVID-19 was discovered in Wuhan, China back in Dec. 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The illness and related lockdowns and restrictions have had a significant impact on both the U.S. and the world.

“Without being invited, American politicians keep hyping the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is purely wishful thinking and grandstanding,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, according to the Associated Press. “If the U.S. side is bent on going its own way, China will take firm countermeasures.”

The #US should follow the #Olympic spirit of “together” and stop politicizing sports and the diplomatic boycott of #Beijing2022, lest it would affect China-US dialogue and cooperation on key areas. #China will take resolute countermeasures if the US is bent on the wrong decision.pic.twitter.com/xnDBIDzGer
— Lijian Zhao u8d75u7acbu575a (@Lijian Zhao u8d75u7acbu575a)
1638802939

I'm always saddened to see politics interfere with global games but what must be, must be...

[GeneChing]

China Warns U.S. Will ‘Pay a Price’ for Boycotting Olympics (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-warns-us-will-e2-80-98pay-a-price-e2-80-99-for-boycotting-olympics/ar-AARynsL)
Bloomberg News 7 hrs ago

(Bloomberg) -- China has threatened the U.S. with retaliation against its decision to declare a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, warning that ties between the world’s two largest economies may suffer.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AARycZC.img?h=484&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f
© Source: VCG/Visual China Group/Getty Images Beijing 2022 Olympics

“The U.S. is standing opposed to athletes and sports lovers across the world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. “The Olympics are not a stage for political stances or political manipulation.”

“The U.S. will pay a price for its wrong practices,” he said, without specifying what actions China might take. The U.S. will host the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, though it’s unlikely Beijing would wait that long to respond. Zhao added that China had lodged its complaint with American diplomats.

Washington’s decision not to send officials to the event is largely symbolic considering the Covid-related restrictions they would face in the Asian nation, which has taken a zero-tolerance approach to fighting the pandemic. Still, Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the Olympics, which start Feb. 4.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki cited China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, and other human rights abuses” as the reasons the U.S. won’t send representatives. China calls allegations about abuses in its far western region “the lie of the century.”

The Canadian and Australian governments are also mulling whether to attend the event. New Zealand said Tuesday it told China in October its officials would not attend, citing a range of factors “mostly to do with Covid.”


I'm troubled over the fallout this might have on #stopasianhate

[GeneChing]

Sex toy ads removed from ice at last-chance Olympic curling qualifier (https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/curling/olympic-curling-qualifier-sex-toy-ads-removed-1.6281520)
Deemed too racy for curling audience, ads to be replaced by statement #equalityforall

Jimmy Golen · The Associated Press · Posted: Dec 10, 2021 2:40 PM ET | Last Updated: December 10

https://i.cbc.ca/1.6281547.1639165023!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpeg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/plys-chris-121021.jpeg
Team Shuster's Chris Plys is seen above at the American Olympic curling trials in November. Ad for sex toys at a last-chance qualifier for Beijing in the Netherlands were removed from the ice on Friday after broadcasts deemed them too racy for the audience. (Rebecca S. Gratz/The Associated Press)

Ads for a sex toy website that led to a U.S. blackout of an Olympic curling qualifying tournament will be removed from the ice and replaced with the statement "#equalityforall."

Erotic website EasyToys and the World Curling Federation said on Friday that they have reached a deal to return the livestream to the United States and Japan, where broadcasters decided that references to the company were too racy for the curling audience. The event in the Netherlands will determine the last remaining spots in the Beijing 2022 curling fields.

"During an Olympic qualifying tournament, it must of course be about the sport and not about the sponsor," Eric Idema, CEO of EasyToys parent company EDC, said in the statement, which was emailed to The Associated Press and translated from Dutch. "Curling also deserves that, as a sport that is one of the few mixed sports that is way ahead of its time. In fact, just like us."

The tournament began Sunday with mixed doubles, but American fans were unable to watch their local livestream due to what the World Curling Federation said was "an ongoing sponsor rights issue." Still available was an international livestream where viewers could see the EasyToys safe-for-work logo on the ice and on ads surrounding the rink; the company's name was also embedded in the hog line that determines where curlers must release the stone.

"We hoped that our visibility would contribute to breaking the taboo that still rests in many countries on both sexuality and on our industry," Idema said. "It is unfortunate that adjustments are now needed to get the sport to the fans."

According to the company, when the tournament resumes on Saturday "almost all" EasyToys logos — which depict a pair of hearts nestled into the company name — will be removed from in and around the rink. It will remain on one sheet and the hog lines will remain "EasyToys pink."

Instead, the ice will feature the hashtag calling for equality.

"With this slogan, we still want to start the conversation about sexual wellness and the importance of safe and pleasant sex for everyone," Idema said. "In many countries that conversation is already well underway, but the boycott confirms to us that we must continue to work on this topic normalize it for a wider audience."

The event in Leeuwarden, about 90 minutes north of Amsterdam, is a last-chance qualifier that will send two teams in mixed doubles and three each in men's and women's to Beijing in February. The United States and Australia qualified in mixed doubles; there is no U.S. team in the other divisions because the Americans had already qualified for the Winter Games.

"EasyToys and the World Curling Federation entered a sponsorship contract for this event in good faith, based around the shared values of equality and respect for everyone," the international governing body said in a statement.

"The legal guidelines along with social norms that influence the broadcaster's policies in certain parts of the world, have proved to be a complicated barrier to showcasing this championship," the WCF said. "This action has been taken to avoid any further distractions to our athletes as they seek to achieve their dreams of reaching the pinnacle of our sport."
Kinda wanna see that ad now...

[GeneChing]

China warns foreign Olympic athletes that political statements during games 'subject to' punishment (https://news.yahoo.com/china-warns-foreign-olympic-athletes-161917245.html)
Peter Aitken
Wed, January 19, 2022, 8:19 AM·2 min read
China has warned foreign athletes they may face punishment for speech that is "against the Olympic spirit" following a similar warning from human rights activists who worry about public freedoms during the games.

Yang Shu, deputy director general of international relations for the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOC), issued a clear warning that "Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I’m sure will be protected."

"Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment," Yang stressed during a news conference Tuesday.

Rule 50 of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) charter states that "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas," meaning that any political protest is subject to punishment at any of the games.

China’s treatment of its Muslim-majority Uyghur people and polices toward Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan have come under increased scrutiny ahead of the Olympics. The country’s history of restrictive laws regarding public speech has raised concerns that the Beijing games could see greater punishments as "applicable local law" dictates what punishments any such protest would incur.

"Chinese laws are very vague on the crimes they can use to prosecute people’s free speech," Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang said, citing potential offenses of provoking trouble or inciting subversion.

Individuals who speak out in China face significant punishments: Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view for two weeks following claims she made on social media platform Weibo that a former Beijing official had sexually assaulted her.

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/rnKVBOCi2XejyemwH7CznA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM5Nw--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/LjXf_voCWvKqashU0SP53Q--~B/aD03MjA7dz0xMjgwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/fox_news_text_979/61bb141fc0a2abecd3a403d1fb519cf4
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 15: Shuai Peng of China reacts in her first round match against Eugene Bouchard of Canada during day two of the 2019 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 15, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.(Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images) (Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images)
Swift public outcry and demands from western media led to a campaign of controlled appearances and media opportunities to show that Peng was "safe," but many believed that her movements and speech remained restricted during these times.

And a Canadian cybersecurity group Citizen Lab reported Tuesday that the health-tracking smartphone app attendees must download has security flaws that included a list of political keywords and a feature to report "politically sensitive content."

A member of the BOC said the group was "not aware" of the list and would look into the matter, The Washington Post reported.

Zhao Lijian, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, also dismissed concerns that some countries, including the United States, advised athletes to bring burner phones with them to avoid surveillance by the Chinese government.

Zhao said that countries "guilty of the charge themselves are accusing the innocent party without any evidence."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. These are strange times so I can't see a total absence of statements.

[GeneChing]

Because we all know from James Bond films that Olympians are often spies (especially the gymnasts)


US athletes asked to use burner phones at Beijing Olympics amid surveillance (https://techstory.in/us-athletes-asked-to-use-burner-phones-at-beijing-olympics-amid-surveillance/)
JIGYASA PRASHARJANUARY 23, 2022
TECH
FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailWhatsAppRedditFlipboar d
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee is advising athletes to discard their personal phones in favor of burners ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in China (via Android Central). Last year, the warning was apparently sent out twice to athletes to warn them of the likelihood of being monitored online while in China. The alert adds that “any device, communication, transaction, and internet activity may be watched.” “Malicious software may have infiltrated your device(s), which could have a detrimental impact on future use.” According to the WSJ, athletes from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands have also been advised not to bring their personal electronics into the nation.

https://mlrmuercqibh.i.optimole.com/r89yYS8-Bwua-H6D/w:1170/h:452/q:auto/https://daballoti.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/daballoti-featured-image-2022-01-23T161822.535.png
Courtesy: Daballoti

The Committee’s concerns are not without merit. China was captured illegally planting spyware on the phones of tourists entering from the Xinjiang province in 2019. The Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic group who have been imprisoned and tortured by China, live in this highly monitored neighborhood. Furthermore, Citizen Lab discovered that China’s My2022 Olympic app, which all guests must install, is riddled with security flaws that might lead to data leaks, surveillance, and hacking.

The US Department of Homeland Security issued a similar warning for anybody travelling to China during the 2008 Summer Olympics, advising that bringing any gadgets could expose them to “unauthorized access and theft of data by criminal or foreign government forces.” This time, though, things are a little different because China has barred all foreign spectators owing to fears about COVID-19. Athletes will most likely use their mobile devices to communicate with friends and family, which could be more difficult on a burner phone with data, texting, and calling constraints.

Even if the Olympic competitors wish to use their burner phones to browse the internet, they may not be able to do so without restrictions. China pledged unlimited internet access to spectators, media, and athletes during the 2008 Olympics, despite the fact that the Great Firewall of China currently censors a number of major websites in the nation, including Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, and others. China, on the other hand, did not appear to follow through on its pledge. Journalists stated that they were still unable to access specific websites, including BBC China, a number of Hong Kong publications, and Amnesty International’s website.

China has stated once again that athletes and journalists will have unrestricted internet access, although it is unclear whether the regime will continue to ban some websites.

[GeneChing]

NBC’s China Challenge: Politically Fraught Beijing Olympics Make Tokyo Look Tame (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/nbc-china-olympics-beijing-tokyo-politics-1235084890/)
Human rights abuses, geopolitics and unprecedentedly strict COVID-19 protocols are just some of the things NBC must balance during its coverage of the global sporting event — all while Olympics television ratings continue to decline.

BY PATRICK BRZESKI, ALEX WEPRIN
FEBRUARY 1, 2022 7:20AM
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Beijing-2022-1.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1
A worker wearing a protective mask drives a forklift past the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on January 3, 2022 in Beijing, China.
NBC was presented with unprecedented challenges when covering the Tokyo summer Olympics amid COVID-19 but without spectators in the stands last year. But the U.S. Olympic TV partner is probably looking back almost wistfully on those comparatively straightforward Games as the politically fraught Beijing Winter Olympics rapidly approach on Feb. 4.

The Chinese staging of the global sporting event, taking place amid a worldwide surge of the highly contagious omicron variant inside an authoritarian country bent on total elimination of the virus, is shaping up to be a precarious balancing act between business interests and journalistic integrity for the broadcasters that paid billions for this privilege.

“NBC is basically in business with the International Olympic Committee and they have a clear interest in promoting the event; but at the same time, they are a news organization which makes claims to journalistic integrity — so it’s an odd place to be,” says Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University who specializes in sports politics (and who also once played on the U.S. Olympic soccer team).

In December, the Biden Administration announced that it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games because of China’s use of forced labor and concentration camps to suppress its Muslim minority population in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang — human rights abuses that the U.S. has declared a genocide. Since then, eight other U.S. allies, including Britain, Japan, Germany and Australia, have joined the largely symbolic boycott.

For its part, NBC executives say they are going into the games clear-eyed, and expect to address human rights issues, China’s stifling of the press, and the pandemic, although as one would expect, that will be secondary to covering the sporting events themselves.

“We are going to be focusing on telling the stories of Team USA and covering the competition. But the world, as we all know, is a really complicated place right now, and we understand that there are some difficult issues regarding the host nation,” Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production, speaking during a press event Jan. 19. “So our coverage will provide perspective on China’s place in the world and the geopolitical context in which these Games are being held.”

“I think it’s always important to remember that we have a record of not shying away from these topics,” Solomon added. “Not in 2008, the last time the Games were in China, in Sochi and PyeongChang. And most recently, we covered COVID and the athlete protests in Tokyo.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Beijing-2022-2.jpg
Members of Team Germany go through security after arriving at the Olympic Village ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 1, 2022 in Beijing, China.
To that end, NBC has tapped Andy Browne, editorial director of the Bloomberg New Economy, as well as Jing Tsu, a Yale professor of China Studies, to join NBC’s team in Beijing and provide context on the host country.

But that context may come with close scrutiny from the Chinese government itself.

The host country’s actions closer to the Games themselves have raised alarm among onlookers, such as Beijing organizers’ requirement that all athletes download a smartphone app to monitor their health status — an app which researchers at the University of Toronto recently revealed contains a “devastating” security flaw that could allow surveillance of users’ data and messages. Several Olympic teams, including the U.S., U.K. and Canada, have advised their athletes to leave their personal devices at home and to use only “burner” phones while in China.

A source at a U.S. news organization that is planning to have reporters cover the games told The Hollywood Reporter that they are advising their staff on the ground in Beijing to use burner phones as well.

Of course, China’s strict COVID protocols, combined with security concerns, may also serve to hinder critical coverage by limiting the number of people even able to cover such news. For the first time, NBC will not have any announcers on-site in Beijing, instead having them call all the events from the company’s Olympics headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

While there will be studio hosts on-site in Beijing, and NBC News does have a Beijing bureau with some reporters able to report from the ground, China’s closed Olympics “loop” means that access to anyone outside of Olympics venues will be nonexistent, and even access to athletes and others inside the loop will be extraordinarily limited.

NBC isn’t alone in cutting back on having people on the ground; ESPN also opted not to send any reporters to Beijing. “With the pandemic continuing to be a global threat, and with the COVID-related on-site restrictions in place for the Olympics that would make coverage very challenging, we felt that keeping our people home was the best decision for us,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vp of event and studio production & executive editor.

An ESPN source added to THR that the access their reporters would have had would be so limited that it simply wasn’t worth it.

But the strict rules have already impacted NBC’s Olympics plans, which traditionally have included field reports from historic sights of the host country (In 2008, the Today show had live reports originating from the Great Wall). Even in Tokyo, NBC was able to have some reporters out of quarantine and able to report from the streets.

“The late great Jim McKay said to me when I had begun hosting the Olympics and he had established the standard at ABC: ‘Remember, yes, it’s a sports event, but it’s a cultural panorama. It’s a travel log,’” NBC’s former Olympics host Bob Costas told CNN Jan. 23. “NBC has no ability under these circumstances to take people around China, to have people share in the emotion of cheering crowds and family. All of that is reduced.”

continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Beijing-2022-3.jpgBeijing 2022 Winter Olympic branding is displayed on the side of a brick building along the high-speed rail line from Beijing to Zhangjiakou Olympic zone, on February 1, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.
In this age of athlete empowerment, there also is the distinct possibility that some Olympic competitors will make political statements in Beijing in protest of China’s human rights record. China has warned of vague but chilling repercussions for such actions. “Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are subject to certain punishment,” Yang Shu, deputy director of international relations for the Beijing organizing committee, said at a press briefing in mid-January.

NBC says it is preparing for such a possibility.

“We plan to have reporters at all Beijing venues. If something happens, we’ll have our own cameras on site,” Solomon says. Ironically, by having so much coverage originate from Connecticut, NBC’s commentators may have more freedom to speak critically if such an event does occur.

The IOC’s checkered history has meant that it’s almost de rigueur for an array of social concerns and criticism to be mounted prior to an Olympics opening ceremony. During an investor conference in the lead-up to the Tokyo Summer Games last year, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell noted how there were worries about traffic snarls ahead of the London Olympics and the Zika virus prior to the Rio Games. “And then once the Opening Ceremony happens, everybody forgets all that and enjoys the 17 days,” he added, emphasizing NBC’s interest in focusing on the sports.

But there could be good reason that U.S. viewers expect a more critical stance and a closer look at the context this time around. In 2021, the Pew Research Center estimated that 67 percent of the U.S. population held negative feelings toward China, up from 42 percent back in 2008 during the lead-up to the Beijing Summer Olympics. At the same time, hardline policies towards China have become the exceedingly rare area of bipartisan consensus among U.S. politicians. Should NBC gloss over the broader circumstances of these games and focus solely on the sports and pageantry, the network would risk alienating a portion of its core audience, while also opening itself up to a hammering from hawks in Congress.

Indeed, both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have already sent letters to NBC in the past few weeks, urging critical coverage of China, and asking questions about what influence, if any, China will have over NBC’s coverage.

For its part, Discovery Inc., which holds the pan-European Olympic rights through its Eurosport subsidiary, has also pledged to engage with the broader issues while beaming its Olympics coverage from Beijing to Europe. Andrew Georgiou, the company’s president of sports, described human rights in China as a “massively important issue,” at a presentation in London on Jan. 24. “It is not a topic that we are going to shy away from, we are going to address it,” given that Discovery is “really focused on social justice issues,” he said.

Many analysts believe that China feels it has less to prove to the world with the 2022 Winter Olympics than it did during the 2008 Summer Games, which were treated as a high-stakes coming out party proving that the country had arrived as a major power on the world stage. Given how much China’s geopolitical influence has grown since then, Beijing is expected to use these Games primarily as a showcase for its domestic populace, whose pride in China’s place the world is currently soaring but requires regular reassurance (particularly amid a slowdown in economic growth, as Xi Jingping prepares to accept an unprecedented third term as the country’s president later this year).

In that case, China’s emphasis, as usual, will be on the total control and manipulation of the local media portrayal of the country’s handling of the Olympic moment. But what if NBC commentators — or athletes given air time in an international broadcast — make statements that are perceived within in China as beyond the pale — “an insult to China?”

“I do think they expect that there will be some criticism that accompanies these Olympics, because it’s such a global moment,” notes Aynne Kokas, the author of the book Hollywood Made in China and a nonresident scholar in Chinese media at the Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University. “But if there is coverage that is perceived as very critical, or something that amounts to some kind of embarrassment for China, then there could be something like the asymmetric responses we have seen before.”
continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Beijing-2022-5.jpg
A worker skis past Olympic Rings at a slope in Genting Snow Park on February 1, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.
Examples of such responses include the reaction when Daryl Morey, then the general manager for the NBA’s Houston Rockets, put out a single, seven-word tweet voicing support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement in 2019 (“Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”). Within days, the NBA — the most popular and profitable U.S. sporting league in China by far — was banned from broadcast in the country for a full year.

An outsized payback against NBCUniversal for any perceived slight would be well within China’s reach, considering the revenue Universal Pictures generates in the country (F9: The Fast Saga was Hollywood’s highest-grossing movie there in 2021, earning $217 million) and that the parent company’s multi-billion-dollar Chinese theme park, Universal Studios Beijing, launched just last September.

For an indication of how tricky the tightrope walk for U.S. businesses has become for these Olympics, consider the path taken by the event’s biggest multinational sponsors. After spending billions to align themselves with the event as top-tier sponsors, companies including Visa, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, have almost entirely abstained from running their usual Olympic-themed global marketing campaigns ahead of the opening ceremony. Coke, for example, is running an Olympic ad campaign only within China.

And that advertising impact is being felt at NBC. A source at a media buying firm confirms that NBC has cut its Olympic ratings guarantee “significantly,” hoping to reduce the need for any potential make-goods if viewers don’t tune in. While it isn’t immediately clear why that decision was made, a lack of clear “star athletes” to feature may be at play, in addition to broader concerns about the host country. The primetime TV audience for the Olympics also has been in steady decline since the 2012 London Summer Games. The average primetime viewership for the Rio Olympics fell 18 percent in 2016, followed by a further 42 percent ratings slide during Tokyo Games last year.

Dan Lovinger, the head of ad sales for NBC Sports, said Jan. 19 that the company was “trying to help our advertisers understand that all of the different narratives are in play here,” and suggested that by advertising during the games, sponsors were also helping the athletes, as well as his network.

“While we wish that there was no diplomatic boycott, we certainly understand it. But a diplomatic boycott is really just that — it just means that our diplomats won’t be in Beijing. Our athletes will be there, and they’ll be excited to be there, and we’ll be there to bring the games to them,” Lovinger said. “And what’s really great for our advertisers to know is that our athletes need them … Their families live to help them train for the games; they get no financial support from our government, which is fine. So, they rely on the generosity of corporate America and some individuals to help them realize these dreams.”

“So, when our advertisers decide to sit these Games out, it really hurts the athletes, because now they have to go compete with the Chinese and the Russians and athletes from other countries that already receive massive state funding,” Lovinger added.

The critical role that the Olympics plays for NBC’s own ad sales revenue was underscored on Jan. 31, when Lovinger was elevated to a new role of president of advertising sales and partnerships, with a focus exclusively on the Olympics. NBCUniversal ad sales chairman Linda Yaccarino told staff Lovinger’s new role was because Olympics sponsorship and advertising was an “enormous opportunity and priority for our company,” one that would required a “dedicated leadership role” leading into the 2024, 2026 and 2028 games.

“These are capitalist firms, not altruistic human rights organizations, so it’s not surprising that they would see all of the potential controversy and opt to keep their heads down,” adds Boycoff of the move by many marketers to maintain a lower profile and avoid speaking out on China’s abuses. “But NBC doesn’t really have that option.”

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Members of Team Norway walk towards their accommodation buildings as they arrive at the Olympic Village ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 1, 2022 in Beijing, China.
And so the network will once again walk the tightrope, knowing the 2024 summer games in Paris, the 2026 winter games in Milan, and the 2028 Los Angeles games, will hopefully mark a return to simpler times, when the Today show can originate from, say, The Eiffel Tower or the Santa Monica Pier, and NBC News can focus most of its coverage on the sports, and not geopolitics.

“The restrictions on press freedom and the sense that everyone there is being monitored in some way, we had that feeling in 2008 in Beijing, and I think if anything, it’s been ramped up now,” Costas said. “And it isn’t just NBC. Any network that broadcasts big sports events is simultaneously in a position, it’s quasi journalistic at best … you’re reporting an event, but you’re also promoting the event.”

“NBC pays a huge rights fee, along with the production costs. They want people to watch it. It’s a centerpiece of the entire network strategy. At a time where everything is fractionalized, very few things draw huge audiences. The NFL does, the Super Bowl, the Olympics do,” he added. “It’s almost 24/7 Olympic stuff. You promote your other upcoming programs. All of that is diminished — it’s not gone, but it’s diminished under these circumstances.”

It saddens me that our world is so divisive now that the games are so hampered.

[GeneChing]

Emboldened China opens Olympics, with lockdown and boycotts (https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/us/china-s-pandemic-olympics-begin-with-lockdown-and-boycotts/ar-AATsNwP)
By SARAH DiLORENZO, Associated Press 8 hrs ago

BEIJING (AP) — China, which used its first Olympics to amplify its international aspirations, invited the world back Friday — sort of — for the pandemic era’s second Games, this time as an emboldened and more powerful nation whose government’s authoritarian turn provoked some countries’ leaders into staying home.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AATtz9J.img?h=533&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=423&y=240 China's athletes Dinigeer Yilamujian and Zhao Jiawen prepare to light the Olympic Cauldron during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
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© Provided by Associated Press Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Games open during a ceremony heavy on ice-blue tones and winter imagery, held in the same lattice-encased Bird's Nest stadium that hosted the inaugural event of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Athletes Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a member of the country's Uyghur Muslim minority, delivered the final Olympic flame. The choice of Yilamujiang was steeped in symbolism: Critics say the Beijing government has abused and oppressed Uyghurs on a massive scale.

With the flame lit, Beijing became the first city to host both winter and summer Games. And while some are staying away from the second pandemic Olympics in six months, many other world leaders attended the opening ceremony. Most notable: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met privately with Xi earlier in the day as a dangerous standoff unfolded at Russia’s border with Ukraine.

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© Provided by Associated Press Fireworks explode over the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach addressed assembled athletes: “Dear fellow Olympians: Your Olympic stage is set.”

The pandemic also weighs heavily on this year’s Games, just as it did last summer in Tokyo. More than two years after the first COVID-19 cases were identified in China’s Hubei province, some 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Beijing, nearly 6 million human beings have died and hundreds of millions more around the world have been sickened.

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© Provided by Associated Press Chinese President Xi Jinping waves during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The host country itself claims some of the lowest rates of death and illness from the virus, in part because of strict lockdowns imposed by the government aimed at quickly stamping out outbreaks. Such measures instantly greeted anyone arriving to compete in or attend the Winter Games.

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© Provided by Associated Press Performers dance as part of the pre-show during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
An Olympic opening ceremony typically provides the host nation a chance to showcase its culture, define its place in the world, flaunt its best side. That's something China in particular has been consumed with for decades. But at this year's Beijing Games, the gulf between performance and reality is shaping up to be particularly jarring.

Fourteen years ago, a Beijing opening ceremony that featured massive pyrotechnic displays and thousands of card-flipping performers set a new standard of extravagance to start an Olympics that no host since has matched. It was a fitting start to an event often billed as China's “coming out.”

Now, no matter how you view it, China has arrived — but the hope for a more open country that accompanied those first Games has faded.

For Beijing, these Olympics are a confirmation of its status as world player and power. Yet for many outside China, particularly in the West, they have become a confirmation of the country’s embrace of more oppressive policies.

Chinese authorities are crushing pro-democracy activism and tightening their control over Hong Kong, becoming more confrontational with Taiwan, and interning Uyghurs in the far west — a crackdown the U.S. government and others have called genocide.

In protest of those actions, leaders of the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others, imposed a diplomatic boycott on these Games, shunning appearances alongside Chinese leadership while still allowing their athletes to compete. But China came back with its own symbolic finger in the eye Friday, putting Yilamujiang in the opening night's most anticipated role.

In the runup to the Olympics, China’s suppression of dissent was also on display in the controversy surrounding Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. She disappeared from public view last year after accusing a former Communist Party official of sexual assault. Her accusation was quickly scrubbed from the internet, and discussion of it remains heavily censored.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

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© Provided by Associated Press The Olympic Stadium is lit prior to the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
In the shadow of those political issues, China put on its show. As Xi took his seat, the performers turned toward him and repeatedly bowed. A simultaneous cheer went up as they raised their pom poms toward their president — China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, who established the People's Republic in 1949. A barrage of fireworks, including some that spelled out “Spring,” announced that the festivities were at hand.

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© Provided by Associated Press Apostolos Angelis and Maria Ntanou, of Greece, lead their team in during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing.(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
A line of people dressed in costumes representing China's varied ethnicities passed the national flag to the pole where it was raised — a show of unity the country often puts on as part of its narrative that its wide range of ethnic groups live together in peace and prosperity.

But politics still elbowed its way into the proceedings. The parade of athletes from Taiwan — the island democracy that China says belongs to it but that competes separately as “Chinese Taipei” — was greeted with a cheer from the crowd, as were the Russian competitors. An overcoated Putin stood and waved at the delegation, nodding crisply as they marched.

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© Provided by Associated Press Athletes from Finland arrive during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
The stadium was relatively full, though by no means at capacity, after authorities decided to allow a select group to attend events.

As with any Olympics, attention will shift Saturday — at least partially — from the geopolitical issues of the day to the athletes themselves.

All eyes turn now to whether Alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who already owns three Olympic medals, can exceed sky-high expectations. How snowboard sensation Shaun White will cap off his Olympic career — and if the sport’s current standard-bearer, Chloe Kim, will wow us again. And whether Russia’s women will sweep the medals in figure skating.

And China is pinning its hopes on Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old, American-born freestyle skier who has chosen to compete for her mother’s native country and could win three gold medals.

As they compete, the conditions imposed by Chinese authorities offer a stark contrast to the party atmosphere of the 2008 Games. Some flight attendants, immigration officials and hotel staff have been covered head to toe in hazmat gear, masks and goggles. There is a daily testing regimen for all attendees, followed by lengthy quarantines for all those testing positive. And there is no passing from the Olympic venues through the ever-present cordons of chain-link fence — covered in cheery messages of a “shared future together” — into the city itself.

China itself has also transformed in the years since its first Games. Then, it was an emerging global economic force making its biggest leap yet onto the global stage. Now it is a burgeoning superpower. Xi, who was the head of the 2008 Olympics, now runs the entire country and has encouraged a personality-driven campaign of adulation.

Three decades after its troops crushed massive democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of Chinese, the government locked up an estimated 1 million members of minority groups, mostly Uyghurs, in mass internment camps. The situation has led human rights groups to dub these the “Genocide Games.”

China says the camps are “vocational training and education centers” that are part of an anti-terror campaign and have closed. It denies any human rights violations.

Outside the Olympic “bubble” that separates regular Beijingers from Olympians and their entourages, thousands of people, bundled in winter jackets, gathered west of the stadium hoping for a distant glimpse of the fireworks, but they were pushed back by police.

Elsewhere in the city, others expressed enthusiasm and pride at the world coming to their doorstep. Zhang Wenquan, a collector of Olympic memorabilia, said Friday that he was excited, but that was tempered by the virus that has changed so much for so many.

“I think the effect of the fireworks is going to be much better than it in 2008,” Zhang said. “I actually wanted to go to the venue to watch it. ... But because of the epidemic, there may be no chance.”

Despite the global chaos and controversy, I hope the Games are a success.

[GeneChing]

Beijing’s Olympics Close, Ending Safe But Odd Global Moment (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/beijing-olympics-closing-ceremony-global-moment-1235096822/)
The terrarium of a Winter Games that has been Beijing 2022 came to its end Sunday, capping an unprecedented Asian Olympic trifecta and sending the planet's most global sporting event off to the West for the foreseeable future.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

FEBRUARY 20, 2022 8:25AM
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The Olympic Cauldron and rings are seen as performers dance during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Beijing National Stadium on Feb. 20. MAJA HITIJ/GETTY IMAGES)

A pile of figure-skating rubble created by Russian misbehavior. A new Chinese champion — from California. An ace American skier who faltered and went home empty-handed. The end of the Olympic line for the world’s most renowned snowboarder. All inside an anti-COVID “closed loop” enforced by China’s authoritarian government.

The terrarium of a Winter Games that has been Beijing 2022 came to its end Sunday, capping an unprecedented Asian Olympic trifecta and sending the planet’s most global sporting event off to the West for the foreseeable future, with no chance of returning to this corner of the world until at least 2030.

It was weird. It was messy and, at the same time, somehow sterile. It was controlled and calibrated in ways only Xi Jinping’s China could pull off. And it was sequestered in a “bubble” that kept participants and the city around them — and, by extension, the sporadically watching world — at arm’s length.

On Sunday night, Xi and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach stood together as Beijing handed off to Milan-Cortina, site of the 2026 Winter Games. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” kicked off a notably Western-flavored show with Chinese characteristics as dancers with tiny, fiery snowflakes glided across the stadium in a ceremony that, like the opening, was headed by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

Unlike the first pandemic Olympics in Tokyo last summer, which featured all but empty seats at the opening and closing, a modest but energetic crowd populated the seats of Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium. It felt somewhat incongruous — a show bursting with color and energy and enthusiasm and even joy, the very things that couldn’t assert themselves inside China’s COVID bubble.

“We welcome China as a winter sport country,” Bach said, closing the Games. He called their organization “extraordinary” and credited the Chinese and their organizing committee for serving them up “in such an excellent way and a safe way.”

By many mechanical measures, these Games were a success. They were, in fact, quite safe — albeit in the carefully modulated, dress-up-for-company way that authoritarian governments always do best. The local volunteers, as is usually the case, were delightful, helpful and engaging, and they received high-profile accolades at the closing.

There was snow — most of it fake, some of it real. The venues — many of them, like the Bird’s Nest and the Aquatic Center, harvested from the 2008 edition of the Beijing Olympics — performed to expectations. One new locale, Big Air Shougang, carved from a repurposed steel mill, was an appealingly edgy mashup of winter wonderland and rust-belt industrial landscape.

TV ratings were down, but streaming viewership was up: By Saturday, NBC had streamed 3.5 billion minutes from Beijing, compared to 2.2 billion in South Korea in 2018.

There were no major unexpected logistical problems, only the ones created deliberately to stem the spread of COVID in the country where the coronavirus first emerged more than two years ago.

And stemmed it seemed to be. As of Saturday, the segregated system that effectively turned Beijing into two cities — one sequestered, one proceeding very much as normal — had produced only 463 positive tests among thousands of visitors entering the bubble since Jan. 23. Not surprisingly, the state-controlled media loved this.

“The success in insulating the event from the virus and keeping disruption to sports events to a minimum also reflected the effectiveness and flexibility of China’s overall zero-COVID policies,” the pro-government Global Times newspaper said, citing epidemiologists who say “the COVID-19 prevention experience accumulated from this Olympics can also inspire Chinese cities to adjust their policies.”

Look deeper, though, and a different story emerges about these Games.

Internationally, many critiqued them as the “authoritarian Olympics” and denounced the IOC for holding them in concert with a government accused of gross human rights violations against ethnic Uyghurs and Tibetans in its far west and harsh policies against Hong Kong democracy activists off its southeastern coast. Several Western governments boycotted by not sending any official delegations, though they sent athletes.

For its part, China denied such allegations, as it typically does, and featured a Uyghur as part of its slate of Olympic torch-carriers for the opening ceremony Feb. 4.

And then, of course, there were the Russians. And doping. Again.

The 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for using a banned heart medication. The result wasn’t announced by anti-doping officials until after she’d won gold as part of the team competition, even though the sample was taken weeks earlier.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared her to compete in the individual discipline, ruling that as a minor she had protected status. But Valieva, although heavily favored to win, fell several times during her free skate routine, landing her fourth place and prompting a cold reception from her embattled coach, Eteri Tutberidze.

“Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance,” Bach said the next day, proclaiming his outrage.

Valieva’s Russian teammates took gold and silver, but on a night of drama, even the winners were in tears. The affair produced one possible legacy for Beijing: Valieva’s ordeal has inspired talk of raising the minimum age for Olympic skaters from 15 to 17 or 18.

American skier Mikaela Shiffrin also came to Beijing with high expectations, only to see them dashed when she failed to finish three races. She left without any medal at all. In an image to remember, the TV cameras captured Shiffrin sitting dejectedly on the snow, head in hands, for several minutes.

The 2022 Games were controversial from the moment the IOC awarded them to Beijing, the frequently snowless capital of a country without much of a winter sports tradition. Almaty, Kazakhstan, was the only other city in play after four other bids were withdrawn due to lack of local support or high cost.

Geopolitical tensions also shadowed these Games, with Russia’s buildup of troops along its border with Ukraine spurring fears of war in Europe even as the “Olympic Truce” supposedly kicked in. In the closing, Bach said athletes “embraced each other even if your countries are divided by conflict,” an apparent reference to a hug captured on camera between a Russian athlete and a Ukrainian one.

China swelled with pride, and its social media swelled with comments, as Eileen Gu, an America-born freestyle skier who chose to compete for China, her mother’s native country, became an international superstar. Her three medals — two gold, one silver — set a new record for her sport, and adulation for Gu literally broke the Chinese internet at one point, briefly crashing the servers of Sina Weibo, the massive Twitter-like network.

And Chinese snowboarder Su Yiming, a former child actor, won over the home crowd with a dominant gold medal big air performance.

Other moments to remember from Beijing 2022:

— With a nearly perfect free skate and a record-setting short program, the 22-year-old figure skater Nathan Chen became the first American gold medalist in his sport since 2010.
— Snowboarding’s best known rider, Shaun White, called it a career after finishing fourth in the halfpipe in his fifth Olympics, passing the torch to athletes like Su and the halfpipe gold medalist, Japan’s Ayumu Hirano.
— American boarder and social media figure Chloe Kim won the gold in halfpipe for the second time, adding to her 2018 medal from Pyeongchang.
— Norway, a country whose total population of 5 million is less than one half of one percent of the host country’s, led the medal count, as it often does. Russia was second, followed by Germany, Canada and the United States.

These third straight Games in Asia, after Pyeongchang in 2018 and the delayed Tokyo Summer Games six months ago, were also the second pandemic Games. And the 16,000 athletes and other international visitors who spent the entire time segregated from the host city behind tall chain-link fences couldn’t help but see the countless signs trumpeting unremitting iterations of the Olympic slogan: “Together for a Shared Future.”

But for much of these austere and distant Games, wintry not only in their weather but in their tenor itself, a post-pandemic shared future — the hug-and-harmony variety that the Olympics builds its entire multinational brand around — seemed all but out of reach.

See you in Milano Cortina in 2026