The Olympic flame for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is on display in Beijing, capital of China, on Dec 29, 2021. (PHOTO / IC)
In 30 days, the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will open. President Xi Jinping's visit to the venues for the Games on Tuesday, his fifth such tour, attests to the great significance the country attaches to hosting the Games.
As he said on Friday in his New Year's Address: "The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready."
Since Beijing won the bid to host the Games in 2015, tremendous work has been done to guarantee the Games will be "simple, safe and spectacular".
With both the Delta and Omicron variants of the novel coronavirus driving a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, the need for vigilance and caution to prevent any imported infections from gaining a foothold is exigent.
To this effect, China has implemented a closed-loop management model to separate the epidemic prevention and control work for the Games from that already being carried out in the country.
All those attending the Games, including athletes, umpires, officials, service staff and volunteers, are required to undergo frequent testing, and there are contingency plans in place to prevent the virus from spreading.
As it was for the Summer Olympic Games Beijing hosted in 2008, China has done all it can to create the optimum conditions for the athletes to perform to their best, and for the world to enjoy the competitions.
But as was the case in 2008, there have been some voices trying to spoil the atmosphere for the Games. However, the Beijing Olympics are widely regarded as having been a spectacular success, and the noise about fabricated allegations of so-called human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region smears only those who spread those lies, not China.
As such, any "diplomatic boycott" of the Games is politically gauche as it makes the boycotters the victims of their own prejudicial intent by highlighting how low they are willing to stoop in their efforts to frame and shame China.
The absence of these Western officials－which means these governments have refused the invitations of their respective national Olympic committees－only brings ignominy upon themselves.
It is a common wish of most of the international community that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games can serve to unite peoples and consolidate the world's confidence in shared humanity at a time when the interactions among different peoples have been dramatically curtailed by the pandemic.
The challenges posed by the pandemic have once again demonstrated how resilient and dynamic China is, and it is hoped that the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games can provide another "Chinese moment" that not only contributes to reinforcing the values of the Olympic Movement but also marks another step toward the realizing of a global community with a shared future.