Despite Beijing’s explicit claims that China is inclined to keep politics and Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 at bay, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) happened to have overlooked various aspects of the sports events which concluded recently.
In an unbelievable admission, Beijing dismissed the ‘so-called’ forced labour of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang and outrightly referred to Taiwan as an ‘integral’ element of China. Amounting to the petty politicisation of the ongoing Olympics 2022, China had even appointed the People’s Liberation Army regimental commander Qi Fabao, who was involved in the Galwan Valley clash, as the ceremonial torchbearer.
Observing a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics by India, the US, the UK amongst other Western nations over China’s human rights atrocities on Uyghurs, the IOC claims Beijing Games was devoid of politics. Contradicting its own stance on the politicisation of the sports events, Yan Jiaron, during a press briefing by IOC, said, “Taiwan is an invisible part of China.”
“We are always against the idea of politicising Olympics Games”: Beijing
In a controversial comment, the spokesperson of the IOC, upon being asked to comment on Taiwan’s attendance at the event, said in Mandarin, “Taiwan is an invisible part of China and this is a well-recognised international principle and well recognised in the international community.”
Amounting to an unveiled attack on Taiwan’s sovereignty and interests, the Chinese official did not hesitate to make a highly questionable remark on Taiwan’s political status and later contradicted itself by stating, “We are always against the idea of politicising the Olympics Games.”
It is pertinent to mention that the query on Taiwan’s attendance at the closing ceremony was posed to IOC spokesperson Mark Adams but Yan Jiaron had interrupted the reporters to respond to the queries herself. On the pretext of ‘making some supplementary remarks’ on Taiwan, she ended up referring to Taiwan as Chinese Taipei and as part of ‘one China’.
During today’s press briefing, @Beijing2022 organizing committee spokeswoman Yan Jiarong reiterated that China opposed any politicization of the games. Yet, she made a point of reading off her script saying “there is only one China and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.” pic.twitter.com/7GtOBe4E8E — David Demes 戴達衛 (@DemesDavid) February 17, 2022
Chinese oppression of Uygur Muslims in Xinjian is ‘lies’: Beijing
In another politically-charged comment, amounting to blatant lies, Jiaron snubbed all queries on Xinjiang’s ‘concentration camps’. Another reporter had asked Adam to comment on IOC’s position on the exploitation of forced labour of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, following which she again interrupted to say, “I think these questions are very much based on lies.”
Culling any further queries on human rights breaches in the province, Jiaron 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,” with no mention of where one could access the ‘evidence and facts’.
“The so-called forced labour in Xinjiang is lies made by deliberate groups,” she added.