By Stephen Wade and Graham Dunbar — Associated Press, Thursday 17 February 2022
BEIJING (AP) — For two weeks, China’s stance on questions about its politics and policies at the Beijing Winter Olympics had been straightforward: It’s the Olympics, and we’re not talking about these things. That changed Thursday at the Beijing organizing committee’s last regularly scheduled daily news conference, three days before the end of the Games. The persistent and polite refusal to answer such questions gave way to emphatic, calibrated answers about the country’s most sensitive situations.
Taiwan? An indivisible part of China. The Uyghur population of the Xinjiang region? Not being pushed into forced labor. China’s sovereignty? Completely unassailable under international norms. “What I want to say is that there is only one China in the world,” organizing committee spokeswoman Yan Jiarong said, calling it “a solemn position” for China. She referred to assertions about China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang as “based on lies.”
The run-up to the Games was overshadowed by a diplomatic boycott led by The United States, which centred on China’s human rights record; China was determined to keep the focus only on sports. Following up on a question about Taiwan’s reported attempt to skip the opening ceremony, Yan stated: “Taiwan is an indivisible part of China and this is a well-recognised international principle. We are always against the idea of politicizing the Olympic Games.” IOC spokesman Mark Adams was immediately challenged by a reporter who suggested that Yan herself had “politicized” the Games. Adams dodged the question.