China's choice of an Uyghur athlete to ignite the Olympic torch was an attempt to divert spectators from the country's genocide of the largely Muslim ethnic minority, according to the US ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday.
Appointing Uyghur skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang as the final torchbearer at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony Friday night was an attempt by the Chinese to distract people from the real issue at hand: that Uyghurs are being tortured and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations by the Chinese, according to Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on CNN's "State of the Union."
UN Ambassador: China is trying to distract us from the genocide issue
With Zhao Jiwen, a skier from China's strong Han majority, Yilamujiang, a 20-year-old cross-country skier, held the torch. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China is home to Uyghurs, who are culturally, linguistically, and religiously separate from Han Chinese.
The choice of Yilamujiang as a torchbearer came as a major surprise to the audience. "I believe it was a great notion," said Mark Adams, a representative for the International Olympic Committee, who told The Associated Press that it does not consider a torchbearer's ethnicity when giving its clearance.
Several exiled Uyghurs have felt silenced while speaking out against the country's government's crimes against the Turkic minority group as a result of China hosting the Winter Games. The Beijing Olympics have been dubbed as the "Genocide Games" by human rights organizations, and the United States and other Western democracies have threatened to boycott the games due to human rights violations, according to Huff Post.
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Uyghur Olympic torchbearer disappears after finishing her debut
After igniting the Olympic torch at the Opening Ceremony, an Uyghur athlete who became the face of China's Winter Games has vanished from the spotlight.
She placed 43rd in her Olympic debut in cross-country skiathlon on Saturday in Altay Prefecture, Northern Xinjiang, and has since vanished from the spotlight. After the race, she and three other Chinese athletes passed through a "mixed zone," which enables competitors to pass through without having to answer questions from the media, and she silently slipped away.
Following her contentious presence at the Opening Ceremony, which rights organizations have since attacked for "providing a political message," Ms. Yilamujiang, the lone Uyghur athlete, became the center of the Olympics.
Ms. Yuelamu Jiang's family cheered and clapped as they watched the ceremony on TV, which many thoughts were manufactured, after her major television appearance.
The event was planned by Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who previously directed the spectacular Beijing 2008 opening ceremony, which took place in the Bird's Nest stadium. He promised it would be a dramatic and innovative manner to ignite the Olympic torch.
According to the WSJ, the organizers of the Beijing Olympics declined to comment on Ms. Yilamujiang's disappearance during a news conference on Saturday, but the IOC stated that mixed-zone laws are still in effect despite the pandemic.
Along with Zhao Jiawen, a 21-year-old Chinese athlete who competes in the Nordic combined, the Communist Chinese administration picked an Uyghur athlete to ignite the Olympic flame. The ceremony was attended by only a few foreign dignitaries, as most Western leaders boycotted it due to China's human rights record and persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang's eastern province.
Around one million Muslims are being held in camps in the remote western province of Xinjiang, according to campaigners and UN experts, with activists and some Western lawmakers accusing China of employing torture, forced labor, and sterilizations. In Xinjiang, China denies any violations of human rights and claims that its camps provide vocational training and are necessary to combat extremism.
As the event takes place inside a Covid-19 secure bubble to comply with China's rigorous zero Covid-19 policy, just a few select guests joined the global leaders in the grandstand.
Xi Jinping, on the other hand, earned a standing ovation when he entered for the opening ceremony, which included goose-stepping People's Liberation Army troops lifting the country's flag as the national song was played, Mail Online reported.
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