China: Silenced voices during Winter Olympics depicts Xi Jinping governs with an iron fist

The oppression and suffering of the people in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are well known to the world, people have protested against the unjust behaviour of the Chinese authoritarian government several times around the world. Even after oppression the oppressed not protesting against unjust during the Winter Olympics 2022, is a testimony of the Chinese government's hold over the country.  With not a single news of protest and no anti-Bejing demonstration as compared to the 2008 Summer Olympics shows how Xi Jinping's led CCP has tightened their grip and control over mainland China, Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia. 

During the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympics endless demonstrations including 155 Tibetan youths, nuns and monks took extreme steps of self-satisfaction as a form of protest. The rage against China began after International Olympic Committee (IOC) got a proposal from China to host the 4-year event in their capital Beijing. The rage was fierce and strong that it went up to the last leg of the torch run from the Greek capital Athens to Beijing. Before the 2008 Olympics, a total of 125 demonstrations around 54 cities and towns were held by the Tibetans but the majority of them were outside the mainland or what China famously calls "Tibet Autonomous Region". The thing to be noted after the Olympics in the same year in August more than 100 Tibetans were shot by the People's Republic Army or commonly known as the Chinese Army.

The growing demonstration was so hard that The IOC was forced to give up their years-long practice of carrying the Olympic Torch to all major cities of the world before finally lighting it in the new venue. Now comparing 2008 to 2022 there was not a single noteworthy protest which broke and this shows how strongly dissent has been curbed in China. The only protest which happened before the 4 years multi-nation tournament was of human rights activists from Europe and America gathering in Acropolis a city in Greece on October 18, 2021. Controlling the dissent has helped China overall as their image was somewhat in the eyes of the world. It would be really hard for them to deal and face the world if the demonstration would have broken out just after recovering from the shame of hiding the facts of Corona after the Pandemic outbreak in Wuhan.

India at Winter Olympics

India's sole participant in the Beijing Olympics Arif Khan on Sunday finished 45th out of 89 participants in the men's giant slalom event. The skier from Kashmir finished the vent at a time of 1:22:35, which was 19:42 behind current leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. On the tough conditions of the Ice River course where visibility was a major issue due to heavy snowfall, Arif khan completed the course with most of the skiers failing to finish the event. Over 30 athletes were unable to finish the 49 gate course with an altitude drop of 424m. Arif recorded the best-ever finish by an Indian in men's giant slalom at the Winter Olympics. 

(With Inputs from ANI)