Liu Xianfa*
In his 2022 New Year Address, President Xi Jinping stressed that “We will spare no effort to present a great Games to the world. The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready.” The opening ceremony for the much-anticipated Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games will be unveiled on February 4, the day of “Beginning of Spring” in Chinese lunar calendar, indicating that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games will surely penetrate the cold winter of the COVID-19 pandemic that shrouds the world, and illuminate a bright future for mankind with shining Olympic spirit.
The Beijing Winter Olympic Games will present the world a simple, safe and wonderful gala. China is committed to hosting a “simple, safe and wonderful” Olympics in 2022 with a “green, inclusive, open and clean” approach, setting new benchmarks for the Olympic Games standards. China carries out all-round preparations in a smooth and orderly manner against the spreading pandemic. China makes full use of the legacy of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, upgrading multiple sports venues to “Dual Olympic Stadiums”. All the stadiums of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be powered in an entirely green way, the first time ever in the history of the Olympic Games. Having published two Beijing 2022 Playbooks on COVID-19 countermeasures for the Games, China puts the participants’ health and safety in the first place and adheres to precise and closed-loop epidemic management. Thanks to China’s unremitting efforts, the Beijing Winter Olympics will be held as scheduled, demonstrating the Chinese spirit of promise-keeping, self-confidence and openness.
The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has engaged over 300 million Chinese people in winter sports and thus effectively promoted the Olympic culture and the exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. In the past 6 years since Beijing on he id o host he 022 winter lympics, winter sports in China have continued to heat up in the southern, western and eastern regions, giving strong impetus to China’s objective of building a leading sporting nation and a Healthy China, and strikingly expanding the global winter sports market. China, taking the Beijing Winter Olympics as an opportunity, adopts new practices for improving ecological environment, builds new models for development of regions and cities, and creates new environment for the progress of human society. The Beijing Winter Olympics will coincide with Chinese Lunar New Year. China will show the world an oriental civilization ancient yet vigorous, the morale of a major-country featuring openness and inclusiveness, and rally the will and strength of people to build a bright future together.
The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has won broad support from the international community. Politicizing sports and disrupting the Beijing Winter Olympics goes against people’s shared aspiration. As major changes of the times combine with the once-in-a-century pandemic, the call for strengthening solidarity and cooperation to tackle common challenges is growing stronger than ever. The slogan of the Beijing Winter Olympics “Together for a Shared Future” is in line with the Olympic motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger-Together”, the trend of times featuring peace, development and win-win cooperation, as well as the expections of the world. The 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus the resolution on Olympic Truce for the Beijing Winter Games that was co-sponsored by 173 countries. The 10th Olympic Summit held by the IOC again voiced the call from the international sports community for supporting the Beijing Winter Olympics and opposing the politicization of sports. Multilateral mechanisms including the G20, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-CELAC Forum and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have all expressed firm support for the Beijing Winter Olympics. This fully reflects where international justice lies and what the international community aspires for. Even US media said that only 9 countries including UK, Canada, Australia, Lithuania followed US’ stand on the Beijing Winter Olympics, demonstrating the US government’s failure to politicize the event.
Sports is the common language of mankind that transcends national borders and civilizations. The Olympic spirit is the best portrayal of mankind’s continuous progress and self-transcendence. The Beijing Winter Olympic Games will inject strong momentum into repairing the wounds of the epidemic, boosting confidence in development, consolidating solidarity and friendship in the world, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Indeed, let’s join hands with full confidence, and work together for a shared future.
*Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC in the Macao SAR
