China’s Main Olympics Goal Is Getting Through Unscathed
Sales assistants serve customers inside a store selling Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games merchandise in Beijing on Jan. 7.
Photographer: Andrea Verdelli/BloombergPitching China as a venue for the Winter Olympics, an exuberant Xi Jinping promised that the Games would be a “fantastic, extraordinary and excellent” experience for visitors.
That was 2015, before Wuhan became ground zero for the global pandemic, before rolling lockdowns started damaging the economy and before global public opinion about China cratered. Last month, with just weeks to go before the opening ceremonies, Xi issued new instructions on how to manage the games: They must be “safe” and “simple.”