The Buzz | IOC’s Bach slips up and refers to Japanese as ‘Chinese’

IOC President Thomas Bach appeared in public yesterday for the first time since arriving in Tokyo last week and with the pandemic-postponed Olympics opening in just 10 days.
Bach spent his first three days in isolation at the International Olympic Committee’s five-star hotel in central Tokyo, and his movements are limited — like almost everyone entering for the Olympics — for the first 14 days.
His first stop was the headquarters of the organizing committee to deliver a pep talk with the beleaguered games set to go ahead without fans in almost all venues.
“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games,” Bach said in his opening remarks to organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto and CEO Toshiro Muto.
Bach tripped over his words, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people.”
“Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people – Japanese people,” Bach said, catching his mistake quickly.