Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be in Beijing for 2022 Winter Olympics

Russian president poised to be the first world leader to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in person since February 2020
The announcement comes at a time when major winter sport countries such as the US and Canada are considering a diplomatic boycott

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

Linda Lew

Published: 7:35pm, 23 Nov 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

This is likely to make Putin the first state leader to meet face to face with Chinese President Xi Jinping since the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Announcing the news, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said jointly celebrating grand milestones had been a long-held tradition of the two countries, and the logistics of the Russian leader’s visit was being worked out.

“The leaders of the two countries will again demonstrate our friendly and neighbourly partnership by meeting at the Winter Olympics,” Zhao said on Tuesday.

“I believe the athletes from the two countries will achieve great results, and contribute to holding a simple, safe and exhilarating games for the world.”

If no other world leader visits China between now and the games, scheduled to begin on February 4, Putin would be the first foreign leader to meet Xi in person since Covid-19 became a full-blown pandemic.

Xi has not left China in almost two years, and the last foreign leader to visit was former Mongolian president Khaltmaa Battulga, in February last year.

The announcement about Putin’s visit comes at a time when major winter sport countries such as the US and Canada are considering a diplomatic boycott of the games.

00:33

President Joe Biden says US considering diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

US President Joe Biden said last week he was mulling such a move, while Canada’s global affairs department said the country was discussing this with partners.

Human rights groups and dissidents have called for a boycott of the 2022 Games, accusing China of crimes against humanity in its treatment of the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uygur people and other minorities in the far-western Xinjiang region, and of oppressing civil society in Tibet and Hong Kong.

Beijing has denied the allegations and said its policies aim to counter terrorism and extremism, and fight poverty.

The boycott calls grew louder after a Chinese tennis star, world champion and Olympian Peng Shuai, disappeared from public view following a post on her Weibo social media account on November 2, where she accused a retired top government official of coercing her into sex.

02:15

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai makes first ‘public appearances’ since sexual assault claims

After her disappearance triggered an international outcry, Peng reappeared in public on Sunday, when she was pictured attending a youth tennis tournament in Beijing.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also said she had had a 30-minute video call with its president Thomas Bach the same day.

However, doubts remain over Peng’s freedom of movement. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is worried that her allegation of sexual assault would be censored and swept under the rug, according to a statement from WTA chairman Steve Simon.

According to the WTA, the senior official at the centre of the sexual assault allegation is former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli. Neither Zhang – who served as the head of the Beijing Winter Olympics working group from 2015 to 2018 and met Bach in 2016 – nor the Chinese government has commented on the allegation.

The China-Russia relationship has become stronger in recent years as both countries deal with growing confrontations with the United States. In their latest display of closer ties, the two countries wrapped up a joint strategic air patrol on Friday, with China deploying two H-6K bombers and Russia sending Tu-95MC aircraft over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.

Last week, Putin said some Western countries were driving a wedge between Russia and China, but that the two nations would expand political and economic cooperation.

“China and Russia are both under the suppression of the West, therefore have to support each other,” Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renmin University, said.

“To support each other’s big events is also part of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic collaborative partnership. Besides, the Olympic Games is not owned by China but the IOC. To support it is also to support the post-war world order and a good example of great power relationship,” added Wang, pointing out that Xi attended the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.

Additional reporting by Liu Zhen