Beijing Winter Olympics expected to promote US-China relations

Despite the so-called "diplomatic boycott" from the US government, the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics is expected to serve as a bridge for US audiences to better understand Chinese culture and its people, said Chinese officials.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, with the official motto "Together for a Shared Future", will open on Feb 4 in the Chinese capital. China has promised to present streamlined, safe and splendid Games.

Like the 2008 Olympic Games, the 2022 Winter Olympics will use the opening and closing ceremonies to showcase China's 5,000 years of culture, tradition and legacy, said Yang Shu, an official with the organizing committee of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

"We want to use what we call the language of the world to tell a new story of China to showcase the motto - 'Together for a Shared Future,'" he said at a virtual media briefing hosted by the Chinese embassy in Washington.

"We try to focus on what has happened since 2008 - he 14 years of extraordinary journey taken by the Chinese nation to showcase Beijing as the first dual Olympic city," he said.

This year's Olympics will make the Chinese capital the first city in the world to host both summer and winter Olympic Games.

To present the games' theme – "a community of shared future for mankind"-- Yang said the organizing committee will use a snowflake to embody "the emotions of humanity" and take a global perspective to show "the romantic, beautiful and warm culture" to the world.

He acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge for the Games. In response, the committee has formulated "very detailed COVID-19 countermeasures", including the closed loop management and vaccination, he said.

"The US is a world power in ice and snow sports and has performed well in previous games," said Yang, "We sincerely wish the American athletes good performance in the Beijing Games."

"Beijing Olympic Games will play a very important role in promoting people-to-people exchange and help people better understand each other," said Jing Quan, minister of the Chinese embassy in the US, at the briefing.

Sports play a critical role in promoting our bilateral relations, because when athletes from different countries get together, their performance will send a positive signal to the audience and the world: "living harmoniously, working together and solidarity", he said.

"China's promise to engage 300 million people in winter sports will no doubt promote our people-to-people exchange, as well as cooperation in services and industrial sectors," said Jing. "As Salt Lake City plans to host another Winter Olympic Games, our mutual support  is even more important."

When asked about the moves by the US and a few other countries to try to politicize the sports activities, Jing said, "The Games are not for geopolitical or ideological rivalry. It belongs to no one, but athletes and their fans."

"The Olympic Games always stands for peace, friendship, and a unity. The Olympic Charter stipulates sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality. So it also spells out the Olympic spirit as the mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity, and a fair play. So we strongly believe sports should not be politicized," he said.

He used the example of Ping-Pong diplomacy over four decades ago to explain how sports could "profoundly change" the China-US relations and the whole world.

"Sport, competition, and exchange tell us that we could rise above the differences in ideology and the social system. They also tell us that we could pursue excellence and the common progress through healthy computation and mutual respect," Jing said.