The latest developments
Ahead of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in China, several states are in favor of not sending diplomatic representatives to Beijing.
The Beijing Winter Olympics will be held in February 2022.
The latest developments:
- On Sunday (January 30), the organizers registered 34 more corona cases. As the organizing committee announced, 23 people entering the country tested positive for the corona virus on Saturday, including 13 athletes or team members. In addition, infections were registered in eleven people who are already in the closed Olympic system. The day before there had been a total of 36 positive tests, and the total number of corona cases since January 23 has risen to 139.
- 36 additional Covid-infected people have been discovered among the participants in the Winter Olympics. As the organizing committee in Beijing announced on Saturday (January 29), a total of 29 people entering the country tested positive for the virus shortly after arriving at the airport, 19 of whom are said to be athletes or team members. Seven other infections were also found among people who were already inside the “Olympic bubble”. A strict corona security concept applies to the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, all participants – from athletes to journalists – are completely separated from the rest of the population. Every participant within the “Olympic bubble” must complete a daily PCR test. Those who become infected are isolated in a specially designated hotel. Only after two negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart can those affected leave the facility again.
- A few days before the Winter Games in Beijing, an alliance of 243 human rights and other non-governmental organizations called for a diplomatic boycott. “The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will open amid atrocities and other serious human rights violations by the Chinese government,” a joint statement said on Friday (January 28). In addition to governments, athletes and sponsors were also asked not to legitimize China’s human rights abuses by participating. Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese authorities have carried out massive attacks against Uyghurs, Tibetans, other ethnic groups and adherents of all independent faiths. Furthermore, an independent civil society was “virtually abolished” by the persecution of human rights activists, feminists, lawyers and journalists – as for example in Hong Kong – said representatives of the alliance.
- The USA is sending 222 athletes to the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The nomination on Monday (January 24) made the majority of entries already made by their professional associations official. Only four years ago in Pyeongchang, the USA had a larger contingent at the Winter Games. Germany is sending 148 athletes to China. The winter games there begin on February 4th and end on February 20th. As expected, the US athletes include snowboard star Shaun White, one of four nominated Americans with experience from four previous Olympic appearances. He could also become only the second person to win medals at four separate Winter Olympics, after speed skater Ireen Wüst of the Netherlands.
- German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will not be traveling to Beijing for the Winter Olympics in February. “I’m a big sports fan, but I definitely won’t be going to the Olympics during this time – that wasn’t usual for foreign ministers in the past either,” the Greens politician told the German Press Agency on Tuesday (December 28). But that is her personal decision. On the question of a diplomatic boycott of the games, a common line with the EU partners is still being sought. She had already spoken out against a boycott at the beginning of December. The Olympic Games are “a festival of sport, athletes prepare for it for years, sometimes half their lives, and that’s why it shouldn’t be used for political things or ceremonies now,” said the Greens politician on ZDF “today journal”. This applies all the more in the middle of a pandemic.
- The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), who is responsible for sports, has also announced that she will not be traveling to the Winter Olympics in Beijing. “The Federal Minister of the Interior has decided for herself not to travel to Beijing herself, if only for pandemic reasons,” said ministry spokesman Steve Alter on Wednesday (December 29).
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized a political boycott of the Winter Olympics as unacceptable. “This is an unacceptable and wrong decision,” he said at his big annual press conference just before Christmas. “We have always been against the politicization of sport.” The Kremlin boss wants to travel to Beijing in February for the opening of the games.
The USA announced weeks ago that it would not send any official representatives to the games in China. Canada, Great Britain, Japan and Australia joined.
New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson also said that no government officials would be sent. The decision is mainly based on concerns about the corona pandemic.
The new German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said that careful international consultation would take place and decisions on a possible boycott would be made.
France will not join the boycott. Diplomatic boycotts are purely symbolic and would achieve nothing, said President Emmanuel Macron. Instead, he wants to work with the International Olympic Committee to improve the situation of athletes around the world.
China’s authoritarian regime is accused of violating human rights. Specifically, it is about human rights violations against minorities such as the Muslim Uyghurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang. But the authoritarian behavior in Tibet and Hong Kong and the threat against Taiwan are also criticized. Because of this, the human rights situation is just one issue that creates tensions between the West and China.
China has announced to the states that are threatening a (diplomatic) boycott of the games that it will take “decisive countermeasures”. At the same time, Beijing denies allegations that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs are being interned in labor camps and that the authorities are trying to reduce the minority’s birth rate with forced sterilization, among other things. “The alleged genocide in Xinjiang, which the US claims is the lie of the century,” according to the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
China did not respond to allegations of authoritarianism against Taiwan or Hong Kong, but said the allegations by Western states were based on “lies, rumors and sinister intentions”. The boycott of the games is also “a mockery of the Olympic spirit, a political provocation and an attack on 1.4 billion Chinese”.
As early as June, Fabian Molina (sp.), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council (APK), asked whether the Federal Council was prepared to forego an official delegation. The Federal Council responded to this request in September. He said the situation was being reviewed and a decision would be made on sending officials to the Games at a later date. A final decision by the Federal Council is still pending.
The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach described the conflict as a “purely political discussion”: The IOC could not solve any major political conflicts with the Olympic Games. This is an exaggerated expectation. «The IOC does not have the power and the means to change political systems. Here the political neutrality of the IOK and the games applies. »
The 24th Winter Olympics will take place in Beijing from February 4th to 20th, 2022. This makes China’s capital the first city to organize the Winter Olympics after the Summer Olympics (2008). The competitions are to take place at three locations: The curling games, the ice hockey tournament and all ice skating competitions will be held in Beijing itself.
Ski competitions as well as bobsleigh, luge and skeleton are planned in Yanqing – 90 kilometers outside of Beijing’s city centre. Snowboarding, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and Nordic combined will take place in the Zhangjiakou area, 200 kilometers from Beijing. High-speed trains will connect the three venues.