Beijing Winter Games open under Western diplomatic boycott

Rarely has an Olympic motto, ‘Together for a shared future’, been further removed from the reality that was experienced this Friday at the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. Despite the noble attempts of Olympism to unite the countries through sport, the tier of authorities staged the new Cold War that the world is facing, also intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.

With the diplomatic boycott of the United States and other Western democracies against the authoritarianism of China and the repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, President Xi Jinping was only accompanied by a dozen leaders, the most important being his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and the Saudi Arabian Prince Bin Salman. In the absence of American, British, Canadian, Australian or Japanese diplomats, the Indians were added at the last minute, annoyed that one of the Olympic torch relay had been one of the Chinese soldiers wounded in a border skirmish with sticks, stones and punches. which ended with several deaths on both sides. A clear sign that the Olympic proclamations go to one gallery, the international one, and the political propaganda of the regime to another, the domestic one, to continue exacerbating nationalism thanks to the unstoppable rise of China.

Proof of this is the applause that Xi Jinping received when he entered the stadium accompanied by the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach. Xi, who has not left China since the pandemic broke out in Wuhan two years ago, appeared with a mask, not like in the conclaves of the Communist Party that he presides over uncovered because the coronavirus is much more controlled in this country than in the Foreign. An effective ‘covid 0’ policy that, as can be seen in the bubble under which these Games are held, further legitimizes the regime and fills its citizens with pride along with these great pageants.

For the first time in history, the same city, Beijing, hosts the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and, in addition, they are inaugurated in the same stadium, ‘El Nido’, in a gala designed by the same director, the renowned filmmaker Zhang Yimou. Like that August 8, 2008, which this correspondent remembers as if it were yesterday, the opening was a show of great plastic beauty but far from the grandeur of that time. Without those 2,008 drums that thundered 14 years ago, the 91,000 throats roaring in the stands were also missing, now occupied only by select groups of guests due to coronavirus restrictions. Even so, it was a much more popular gala because no music or movie stars sang or acted, just ordinary people who liked the return to socialist roots that President Xi Jinping preaches. In keeping with his speech, the Chinese flag passed from hand to hand among representatives of the 56 ethnic groups that exist in this country, dressed in their traditional costumes.

‘One world, one family’

With this popular philosophy and the motto ‘One world, one family’, reminiscent of ‘One world, one dream’ in 2008, the gala had snowflakes as its main theme, which symbolize winter and those who say that No two are the same. In a spectacular start to the gala, the elongated central screen that presided over the stadium projected a cascade of water that froze like a lake on an 11,600-square-meter oval LED track. An ice cube emerged from it, like one of the venues for these Games, which when melted revealed the Olympic rings. The athletes also came out of that central screen, who paraded for an hour led by hostesses who carried the names of their countries on posters also in the shape of snowflakes. At the end of the parade, they formed a giant snowflake in the center of the runway.

Before the snowflake and the Olympic rings, IOC President Thomas Bach thanked his hosts in Mandarin and welcomed the government’s plan to popularize winter sports among 300 million Chinese. “We show the world that it is possible to defeat rivals and live in peace and respect. That is the mission of the Olympic Games, to get together and build bridges, not walls,” he said, clearly alluding to the growing international tension.

President Xi Jinping then declared the Winter Games of the XXIV Olympiad open, and a flurry of fireworks lit up the chilly Beijing sky. In another tribute to the people, 76 young people from around the world paraded down the stadium track before John Lennon’s anthem ‘Imagine’ was played while the figure of a colored skier rose in the heights. Worn by six winter champions and medalists, the Olympic flag was raised while its anthem was sung by a children’s choir from the mountains of Hebei, the neighboring province of Beijing that contributes two venues to these Games.

After the Olympic oath and a video of the champions of tomorrow, the children who take their first steps and falls on ice and snow, the most awaited and exciting moment arrived: the lighting of the cauldron with the Olympic flame. Carried by seven former champions from various generations, it was lifted by two of the last to the giant snowflake while an army of children sang and waved illuminated dove-shaped balloons. If in 2008 it was the ex-gymnast and businessman Li Ning who flew over ‘El Nido’ to light the cauldron, this time the flame lit up inside the huge flake and rose over the stadium in the middle of the final fireworks display. For the second time, the Olympic flame burns in China, now in the freezing Beijing winter.