China's President Xi visits winter Olympics venues as challenges mount

BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Beijing Winter Olympics venues a month before the games begin amid a worsening Covid-19 outbreak and diplomatic tensions with Western nations over human rights.

Mr Xi toured the National Speed Skating Oval, the athletes' village as well as the operations and media centres on Tuesday (Jan 4), according to state-run China Daily.

The English-language newspaper said he greeted competitors, coaches and volunteers preparing for the event that runs Feb 4-20, without reporting his comments.

The 68-year-old and everyone else in photographs of his visit wore face masks, an unusual move for the Chinese leader who often appears in public unmasked - perhaps a sign of heightened caution as the city of Xi'an experiences the country's gravest outbreak since the pandemic's onset.

Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed Mr Xi remove his facial covering when addressing crowds at a distance.

China has pledged to host a "simple, safe and splendid" Winter games, in contrast to the spectacle of Beijing's Summer Olympics in 2008.

The attempt to lower expectations is largely due to China's inability to eliminate Covid-19 from its borders, despite strict quarantine rules for inbound travellers, and a policy of mass tracing, testing and lockdowns to stem flareups.

Xi'an, a city of 13 million people in the Shaanxi province in central China, is dealing with shortages of food and medical care as its lockdown approaches two weeks.

Yuzhou, with a population of some 1.2 million in the central province of Henan, went into lockdown on Monday, the Global Times reported. Zhengzhou, the capital of the same province, said it shut off some neighbourhoods on Tuesday.

The Winter Games are also the target of a diplomatic boycott led by the United States. The Biden administration announced the move in December, citing "crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, and other human rights abuses".

Australia, Canada and Britain announced similar measures, and Japan said it would not send any government representatives, though it avoided the words "diplomatic boycott".

Beijing has vociferously denied the genocide accusation levelled at its handling of the far western region of Xinjiang, which has a large Muslim Uighur population. China says it is providing job training and educational opportunities while quelling terrorism.