JAKARTA – The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have officially opened. The opening ceremony took place on the evening of Friday, February 4th.
The event was the culmination of preparations hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and criticism of China's human rights, which prompted several countries to launch diplomatic boycotts.
"I believe that by the time the Olympic flame is lit, all this so-called boycott banter will be extinguished," said Zhao Weidong, spokesman for the Beijing Olympics.
The unveiling came shortly after President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee Chairman Thomas Bach entered the iconic Bird's Nest Stadium decorated with flags of the 91 countries and territories competing in the Games.
The event saw 3,000 performers on stage consisting of an 11,600-square-meter high-definition LED screen resembling an icy surface. The mastermind behind it was director Zhang Yimou.
He was previously also behind the ceremonial success of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
All the appearances of ordinary people from Beijing and the nearby Hebei Province who told the “Snowflake Story” as the main thread.
The show, below -4C, will last about half of the four-hour total duration of a similar opening ceremony at the 2008 Olympics which also took place at the Bird's Nest.
Participants attending ceremonial events are reduced. Previously, organizers had also decided last month not to sell Olympic tickets to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
A divider was installed to wean athletes and other Olympic personnel from the ordinary Chinese population during the Games.
Although smaller in scale than the 2008 Summer Olympics, this year's Winter Olympics were staged by a far more prosperous, strong, confident and confrontational China under Xi's leadership.
China's hosting of the tournament has come under intense criticism since the International Olympic Committee voted for Beijing in 2015. Countries including the United States, Britain and Australia have even launched a diplomatic boycott.
The boycott of those countries means they will not send their political officials to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics.
In the midst of these boycotts, Russian President Vladimir Putin has become the main foreign guest. He arrived on Friday to meet Xi ahead of the opening ceremony.
The two agreed a deal to increase China's natural gas supplies amid rising tensions with the West. The meeting also underscored Xi's pledge to deepen mutual cooperation.
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