China’s Xi Jinping pledges support for Tokyo Olympics as Japan extends coronavirus emergency

The Chinese president also told IOC chief Thomas Bach he is confident of hosting the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing on schedule despite the pandemic
Covid-19 fears have led to mounting calls for the Tokyo event to be postponed or cancelled, while China is facing boycott threats over human rights issues

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Kyodo

Published: 9:51am, 8 May 2021

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Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday told International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach that his country will support the holding of this summer’s Tokyo Games, as the novel coronavirus outbreak has shown few signs of easing soon in Japan.

The official Xinhua news agency also quoted Xi as saying during a telephone conversation with Bach that China is confident in hosting the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics next year on schedule despite the pandemic.

Xi’s remarks came as calls are mounting both at home and abroad for the Tokyo Games to be postponed or cancelled amid the virus spread, while China has been facing Olympic boycotts by democratic nations condemning its alleged human rights violations.

In April, Japanese government sources said Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi back-pedalled on a previous pledge to cooperate in making the Beijing Olympics a success during a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in the same month.

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The change in stance indicated that Japan, a close US ally, has started to fall into step with the administration of President Joe Biden, which has ramped up criticism of China’s alleged human rights abuses in its far-western Xinjiang region.

Xi, however, may be trying to prevent relations between China and its neighbour Japan from souring further by expressing support for the Tokyo Games, as China-US tensions have been escalating over several economic and security matters, pundits said.

The Chinese Communist-led government has been accused of mass detention of the country’s Muslim Uygur minority who oppose growing state surveillance under a “re-education” campaign in Xinjiang.

China has consistently said its detention camps are vocational training centres established to combat terrorism and religious extremism preemptively, urging the United States not to interfere in its “internal affairs”.

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In Japan, meanwhile, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday extended a state of emergency covering the capital past its scheduled end date on Tuesday to May 31, having deemed more time is needed to bring down Covid-19 cases.

The change will leave a margin of less than two months before the July 23 start of the Games, which were postponed last year.

Bach’s planned visit to Japan in mid-May will be “very difficult” against backdrop of a resurgence of infections in the nation, Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the Japanese organising body of the Summer Games, said on Friday.

Japanese media reports have said Bach would attend a torch relay ceremony in the western city of Hiroshima on May 17, but both Hashimoto and the IOC said the visit had not been finalised.

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The World Health Organization hopes the Olympics can go ahead this summer, its emergencies chief said on Friday, saying many of the decisions on the format of the games can only be made last-minute due to evolving risks from the pandemic.

“It is our hope that the Olympics can occur,” WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan told a briefing, noting a levelling off of the percentage of positive Covid-19 tests in the country.

So far, he said authorities had applied a “very systematic, risk-managed approach” to preparations and described Tokyo as “highly competent” to make decisions on how to stage the Games, while avoiding social mixing that would spread the virus.

“We have confidence that the International Olympic Committee and the host city Tokyo and the government of Japan will make the right decision on how best to manage the risks and they are working extremely hard right now to ensure that those risks are well-managed,” he said.

Some decisions, such as on the number of spectators, could only be made just before the opening on the basis of the evolving Covid-19 case numbers, Ryan said. Japan has already said international spectators will be barred and that it could hold the event without any spectators.

Additional reporting by Reuters