2015-07-31

 

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics delegation reacts after the city was elected to host the 2022 Olympic Winter Games at IOC meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015.

 AFP

 

 

Beijing on Friday won its U.S.$1.5 billion bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in spite of widespread warnings from the country’s human rights activists and ethnic minorities of a worsening climate for human rights and the likelihood of more abuses to come.

 

IOC President Thomas Bach made the announcement at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur after the IOC voted on presentations by Beijing, which will likely rely on man-made snow for the event, and Kazakhstan's former capital, Almaty.

 

Beijing received 44 votes to Almaty’s 40, making it the first city to hold both a Winter and a Summer Games, the IOC said in a statement on its website shortly after the vote.

 

Beijing’s presentation to the IOC on Friday showed a slick time-lapse montages of busy cities, Chinese medalists winning at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, as well as a snow-covered Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Great Wall, in an apparent bid to ward off criticism that the country has no serious snow suitable for winter sports.

 

Almaty’s bid, meanwhile, focused on the widespread popular enjoyment of winter sports among ordinary people, showing men, women and children checking out ski equipment and enjoying winter sports amid thick blankets of snow.

 

While IOC Vice President Yu Zaiqing said the bid represented “the Chinese people’s passion” for the Winter Olympics, the Chinese delegation included some of their most successful medalists from previous Olympics and World Championships, all of whom were handpicked and fast-tracked by a state-backed training regime that critics say has little to do with public involvement in sport.

 

'Slap in the face'

 

The decision comes after international rights groups, activists in China and ethnic minority groups representing Tibetans and mostly Muslim Uyghurs, made repeated appeals to the IOC not to award China the Games, citing a slew of repressive measures surrounding the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

 

“[The] awarding of the 2022 Olympics to China is a slap in the face to China’s besieged human rights activists,” Sophie Richardson, China director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), tweeted in reaction to Friday's announcement.

 

“In choosing China, the IOC just failed the first test of its own new human rights commitments,” Richardson told RFA in written comments by private message.

 

“Discrimination, labor abuses, ever expanding restrictions on the freedom of expression, China has it all,” she said.

 

Even before the decision was announced, there were signs that the authorities are beginning to search out those who speak out against the Games for questioning and intimidation.

 

Beijing-based rights activist Du Yanlin was among 40 Chinese activists who signed an open letter opposing the Winter Games, an act which in itself put him at risk of official harassment and retaliation.

 

“The police showed me the documents related to the petition, and asked me what it was,” Du told RFA in an interview ahead of the IOC vote. “They said that their leaders were furious when they saw it, because I’m still out on bail.”

 

“They said there weren’t many people in China [who dared to oppose the Games] and that I was the worst, even worse than [Beijing rights activist] Hu Jia.”

 

Hu, who has also spoken out against China’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics, served a three-and-a-half-year jail term for "incitement to subversion" after he wrote online articles critical of Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Summer Games.

 

 

 

2015-07-31

 

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics delegation reacts after the city was elected to host the 2022 Olympic Winter Games at IOC meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015.

 AFP

 

 

Beijing on Friday won its U.S.$1.5 billion bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in spite of widespread warnings from the country’s human rights activists and ethnic minorities of a worsening climate for human rights and the likelihood of more abuses to come.

 

IOC President Thomas Bach made the announcement at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur after the IOC voted on presentations by Beijing, which will likely rely on man-made snow for the event, and Kazakhstan's former capital, Almaty.

 

Beijing received 44 votes to Almaty’s 40, making it the first city to hold both a Winter and a Summer Games, the IOC said in a statement on its website shortly after the vote.

 

Beijing’s presentation to the IOC on Friday showed a slick time-lapse montages of busy cities, Chinese medalists winning at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, as well as a snow-covered Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Great Wall, in an apparent bid to ward off criticism that the country has no serious snow suitable for winter sports.

 

Almaty’s bid, meanwhile, focused on the widespread popular enjoyment of winter sports among ordinary people, showing men, women and children checking out ski equipment and enjoying winter sports amid thick blankets of snow.

 

While IOC Vice President Yu Zaiqing said the bid represented “the Chinese people’s passion” for the Winter Olympics, the Chinese delegation included some of their most successful medalists from previous Olympics and World Championships, all of whom were handpicked and fast-tracked by a state-backed training regime that critics say has little to do with public involvement in sport.

 

'Slap in the face'

 

The decision comes after international rights groups, activists in China and ethnic minority groups representing Tibetans and mostly Muslim Uyghurs, made repeated appeals to the IOC not to award China the Games, citing a slew of repressive measures surrounding the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

 

“[The] awarding of the 2022 Olympics to China is a slap in the face to China’s besieged human rights activists,” Sophie Richardson, China director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), tweeted in reaction to Friday's announcement.

 

“In choosing China, the IOC just failed the first test of its own new human rights commitments,” Richardson told RFA in written comments by private message.

 

“Discrimination, labor abuses, ever expanding restrictions on the freedom of expression, China has it all,” she said.

 

Even before the decision was announced, there were signs that the authorities are beginning to search out those who speak out against the Games for questioning and intimidation.

 

Beijing-based rights activist Du Yanlin was among 40 Chinese activists who signed an open letter opposing the Winter Games, an act which in itself put him at risk of official harassment and retaliation.

 

“The police showed me the documents related to the petition, and asked me what it was,” Du told RFA in an interview ahead of the IOC vote. “They said that their leaders were furious when they saw it, because I’m still out on bail.”

 

“They said there weren’t many people in China [who dared to oppose the Games] and that I was the worst, even worse than [Beijing rights activist] Hu Jia.”

 

Hu, who has also spoken out against China’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics, served a three-and-a-half-year jail term for "incitement to subversion" after he wrote online articles critical of Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Summer Games.