West warned to refrain from ‘ big lie’ on Xinjiang, Beijing Olympics

Hyping ‘ genocide’ rumor to politicize sports event a nasty trick: experts

As some anti- China politicians in Western countries are trying to hype the “genocide” rumors about Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to obstruct the 2022 Beijing

Winter Olympic Games, Chinese experts said if these attempts become the official stance of these Western countries, there will be serious consequences.

Western leaders should stop politicizing global sports event with a “big lie,” they noted.

Canada’s parliament passed a nonbinding motion on Monday saying that China’s treatment of the Uygur people in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region “constitutes genocide,” putting pressure on the government of liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to follow suit, according to Reuters on Tuesday.

However, Trudeau and his Cabinet have abstained from the vote, AP reported.

The motion was also amended just before the vote to call on the Interna

tional Olympic Committee ( IOC) to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing if “the treatment” continues.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a routine press conference on Tuesday that China firmly opposes and has lodged serious representations to Canada against its motion.

“Facts have proven that there has never been genocide in Xinjiang. This is a pure lie concocted by antiChina forces, a ridiculous farce to smear China. Some Canadian politicians’ blatant politicization of sport violates the spirit of the Olympic Movement and harms the interests of their athletes,” Wang noted.

There have been similar attempts or calls from politicians and “human rights groups” in some other Western countries to boycott or relocate the 2022 Winter Olympics, mostly members of the Five Eyes Alliance, such as the US and the UK.

Chinese experts said that those attempts made by some politicians in parliament or congress in Western countries are yet to become the official government stance of these countries, as decision- makers in the West understand how serious the consequence would be if they boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. Those calls are an old trick that some Western politicians had frequently played in the past, especially when China or Russia hosted the Olympics. It is a political stunt to specifically attack countries who pursue different paths from the West.

Experts on Olympic issues pointed out that it is useless and ignorant for some Canadian politicians to call for a removal of the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics from Beijing as a possible replacement of the host city is decided only by the IOC and the city it would entrust, and apparently the IOC would never accept such a “ridiculous appeal.”

“Neither the IOC nor the national Olympic committees from any country would allow sports to be manipulated by politics. Such calls for a boycott or relocation of the Games will not be a global trend, as we saw by what happened to Russia’s Sochi Winter Olympics [ in 2014],” said Ding Bocheng, who participated in organizing the Summer Games in 2004 and 2008 and is part of the team for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing.

Don’t overestimate yourself

Lü Xiang, an expert on international relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday, “Anti- China conservative politicians in the West need to understand that they have no right to decide where to hold the Olympics. They just arrogantly believe they can represent the international community.”

The motion passed by the Canadian parliament is non- binding, so the Trudeau administration needs to avoid being stupid. Canada’s antiChina politicians just played the same trick as Mike Pompeo （ former US secretary of state in the Trump administration). It is “big lie” diplomacy, Lü said.

To groundlessly accuse China of “genocide” will never become a legitimate excuse for the boycott and would only make those who support the boycott more isolated, Lü said.

In 2008, anti- China forces like some Western politicians and Tibet separatists tried to play the same trick to boycott the Beijing Olympics, but eventually, they had all failed.

Lü said that in 2008, Western countries, especially the US, needed

China’s help to overcome the challenge of the financial crisis; and now, the problems they have to face have created many more headaches than in 2008, such as fighting the COVID- 19 pandemic and pushing economic recovery, so the West, which is in a big mess, has no reason and no strength to seriously offend China by boycotting the 2022 Games.

When Western anti- China forces use rumors about Xinjiang as a weapon to harm China’s interests, there is no effective way for China to stop them from telling lies, so retaliation is the only language that those liars can understand, Lü said.

Never about Xinjiang

Some mainstream Western media like CNN cannot even correctly locate where Xinjiang is on the map, so the calls for a boycott are never about the human rights or the Uygur people. Chinese analysts said some Western countries are likely to use the calls as a bargaining chip to negotiate with China for compromises on other issues.

It is not a matter of human rights in Xinjiang, but more about not giving China a chance to stand out in the international arena, said Peking University professor Zhang Yiwu.

Zhang noted that “the Olympic Games is just a way out for the West to contain China by waving its flags of human rights and ethnic issues.”

Zhang said that the prosperous, stable and harmonious Xinjiang has debunked their smears, but China should continue spreading true stories about the region to the outside world and invite more politicians and journalists from other countries to visit Xinjiang.

China’s arms industry has brought a broad selection of weapons and equipment to an ongoing major large- scale international arms expo in the Middle East, attracting wide interest, with analysts saying on Tuesday that Chinese arms have prospects in the defense market in the region despite the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Multiple Chinese arms firms joined the 15th International Defense Exhibition and Conference ( IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, under the unified brand of “China Defense” on Sunday, China Central Television ( CCTV) reported on Tuesday.

The HJ- 12 portable anti- tank missile, SR- 5 multiple launch rocket system, CM- 501GA multipurpose tactical strike missile system, WS- 43 loitering munitions system, L- 15 advanced training jet, CH series drones and Wing Loong II armed reconnaissance drone are among key Chinese items at IDEX 2021, the report said, noting that they garnered wide interest.

These products are carefully selected to meet the demands of countries in the Middle East, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing- based military expert, told the Global Times.

Due to the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the scale of this year’s edition of the biennial expo was reduced by one fourth compared with the previous edition, and Chinese arms companies exhibited models for the most part rather than real products, supported with video and audio displays, CCTV reported.

Despite the pandemic, Chinese arms products have prospects in the Mideast defense market, as many countries in the region still possess a sufficient defense budget and are willing to retire older weapons for new ones as soon as possible, Wei said. “Chinese arms will likely win more and more market share in the Middle East.”

For years, many countries have been favoring Chinese arms products due to their affordability, high quality, good after- sales service and the lack of additionally attached political conditions, analysts said.

Fewer young people in China are willing to get married, and the country has seen a continuous sharp drop in the marriage rate and increase in the divorce rate in the past eight years, a survey showed.

From 2013 to 2020, the number of marriage registrations fell from a record high of 13.47 million couples to 8.13 million, according to a report by Tsinghua University’s Evergrande Research Institute.

The number of first marriages dropped from 23.86 million to 13.987 million from 2013 to 2019, and the average age was between 25 and 29, instead of between 20 and 24 as previously.

Data from 2005 to 2019 showed the proportion of marriage registrations by couples aged 20 to 24 decreased from 47.0 percent to 19.7 percent.

Marriage rates fell differently among regions, and they were generally negatively correlated with GDP. The more prosperous a city was, the lower the marriage rate was. Marriage rates also fell markedly in provinces with population outflows and aging problems.

The pursuit of personal freedom and independence, as well as the high cost of raising children, are behind the decreasing willingness to get married, said Ren Zeping, dean of the Evergrande Research Institute.

High housing prices and high education costs have also deterred young people from getting married, especially in big cities, Ren said.

On the Twitter- like Sina Weibo platform, the hashtag “Why young people dare not to get married” trended on Tuesday with over 33 million views.

“There are many answers, but the basic one is the lack of an efficient social security system,” a netizen said.

Many netizens said they feel pressure to find the right person, both from their parents and themselves. Many are also wary of divorce.

Many opt for being single as they believe that the gap between the rich and the poor means staying alone is a better choice. Some worried marriage would affect their careers.