The Olympic flame arrived in China early Wednesday for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, state media reported, following a ceremony in Athens overshadowed by protests over China’s human rights record.<\/p>\n
The flame was expected to go on display at a ceremony at the Beijing Olympic Tower before going on an exhibition tour, state media and the International Olympic Committee said.<\/p>\n
Around 2,900 athletes, representing approximately 85 National Olympic Committees, will compete in the Winter Games between 4 and 20 February 2022.<\/p>\n
The flame was lit in Athens on Monday and transferred the following day to the organisers of the Beijing Games, but the lighting ceremony was disrupted by activists.<\/p>\n
Protesters urged the IOC to postpone the event, arguing that China was perpetrating “genocide” against Uyghurs and Tibetans.<\/p>\n
During the lighting ceremony in Olympia on Monday, activists unfurled a Tibetan flag and a banner that read “no genocide” at the Games. A similar protest was held at the Acropolis in Athens on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Human rights campaigners and exiles say the Chinese central government practises religious repression, torture, forced sterilisation and cultural erosion through forced re-education.<\/p>\n
Campaigners believe that at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n
After initially denying the existence of the Xinjiang camps, China later defended them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.<\/p>\n
There have also been calls for athletes and governments to boycott the Games.<\/p>\n
IOC chairman Thomas Bach has batted off talk of a potential boycott, claiming the International Olympic Committee’s political neutrality and saying it was up to governments to live up to their responsibilities.<\/p>\n
A victim of the 1980 Moscow Games boycott, the former fencer has said such moves only punish athletes, and insists the IOC is addressing the rights issue “within our remit”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Olympic flame arrived in China early Wednesday for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, state media reported, following a ceremony in Athens overshadowed by protests over China’s human rights record. The flame was expected to go on display at a ceremony at the Beijing Olympic Tower before going on an exhibition tour, state media and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-222528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n