The following is from an editorial that appeared in today's Sankei Shimbun titled "The blatant politicization of the Beijing Winter Olympics is flagrant."
This editorial also proves that the Sankei Shimbun is the most decent newspaper today.
It is a must-read for the Japanese people and for people worldwide, especially those who make their living from the UN and the IOC.
The emphasis in the text is mine.
The political exploitation of the Beijing Winter Olympics is flagrant.
At the opening ceremony, the final runner of the torch relay was Jiniger Ilamzhan, a female athlete from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, along with a male athlete from the Han Chinese nationality.
It may have been an attempt to create ethnic harmony in response to the diplomatic boycott of the Olympics by the U.S., Britain, Australia, and other countries in protest against the suppression of human rights in the region, but it came across as provocative hypocritical.
The next day, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on her impressions of the opening ceremony, saying, "It will be deeply etched in my mind for the rest of my life."
Of course, there was no mention of the human rights issue.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, "The view that there is genocide in Xinjiang is the lie of the century," regarding the selection of people for the torch relay.
President Xi Jinping has engaged in a series of Olympic diplomacy with the leaders of authoritarian nations, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who attended the opening ceremony. Still, Russia is under sanctions for state-sponsored doping violations, and Mr. Putin has been banned from attending the Olympics.
It is believed that an exception to the rule applies, "except when invited by the leader of the host country," but Mr. Xi's invitation clearly goes against the idea of anti-doping.
However, there is no evidence that International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Bach asked Xi about this.
Mr. Bach met in the Olympic bubble with Peng Shuang, a female tennis player who has accused the former Chinese vice premier of forcing her to have sexual relations with him, and stressed that she was safe.
She couldn't testify freely under the authorities' control, and Mr. Bach was helping China's propaganda efforts.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres met with Mr. Xi and expressed hope that the visit to Xinjiang by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bachelet would be "credible." Still, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that the purpose was to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two sides.
World Health Organization (WHO) Secretary-General Tedros met with Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who said in a statement from the Chinese side that "WHO opposes the politicization of origin investigations."
Only China's political promotion is steadily progressing in the turmoil of "disqualification" due to ski jumps and short-track speed skating.
As was feared before the opening of the Olympic Games, the Beijing Winter Olympics have the appearance of a strange competition.
