Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to hold a successful Winter Olympics next year in Beijing, responding to challenges the event faces from the coronavirus pandemic.
“With the active support and participation of all parties, we’re confident about overcoming the impact of the pandemic and hosting a simple, safe and splendid Olympics,” Xi told a gathering of ambassadors in Beijing that was covered by state television Wednesday evening.
Xi’s government will need to provide assurances about Covid-19 protection measures after the U.S. and others criticized a World Health Organization report in March on the origins of the coronavirus, calling it incomplete and faulting data and access provided to its authors by China.
Despite insistence from International Olympic Committee officials that sports and politics are separate, the Olympics have been enmeshed in complicated developments in world affairs and controversies for decades.
Foreign diplomats in China have been debating whether to boycott the Olympics and discussed the possibility that top dignitaries stay away, while athletes compete and sponsors participate. Given the importance of China to the global economy and the sensitivity Beijing has toward hosting the global sports spectacle, most doubted there would be an outright boycott.
The Beijing Winter Olympics start about six months after Tokyo hosts the virus-delayed Summer Games, where measures including a ban on overseas spectators have been put in place to prevent it from becoming a superspreader event. MDT/Bloomberg
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