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A hotly contested international sporting event, a global pandemic, and a notoriously autocratic regime: ideal conditions for a Winter Olympics mired in controversy.
From the massive deployment of snow cannons to heavy-handed policing — including suspicions of surveillance of foreign athletes; from Uyghur minority torchbearer Dinigeer Yilamujiang to attacks targeting Chinese participants, all against the backdrop of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s support for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine crisis, you might wonder if we should still talk about sports at all when it comes to Beijing 2022.
Outside of China, the numerous controversies have only provoked half-hearted "diplomatic" boycotts, initiated by the United States. In Europe, opinions are divided. Some countries (such as Lithuania, Belgium and Denmark) have decided against sending diplomatic delegations to China, while others (such as France, Poland and Italy) have not.
