Author: Web Desk

BEIJING, Feb. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games was held at the National Stadium in Beijing on Friday night.

Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Winter Games open after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach delivered a speech.

“This Year of the Tiger is also an Olympic Year,” Bach said. “Both the Year of the Tiger and the Olympic Tiger stand for ambition, courage and strength. Today, thanks to this ambition, China is a winter sport country. Well over 300 million people are engaged in winter sports in about 2,000 ski resorts and ice rinks.”

“Dear athletes,” he added, “We are all standing with you. We are all supporting you. We are all cheering you on.”

Zhang Yimou, who’s behind the epic opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, was again the chief director for the 2022 Winter Games opening ceremony. Snowflakes were at the heart of his central idea for Friday night’s show, which featured them in two programs. The lighting of the Olympic flame also carried the same motif.

“Different snowflakes come to Beijing and assemble into a giant snowflake of humankind,” Zhang said of his concept for the opening ceremony in an interview with China Media Group (CMG).

Delegations from over 90 countries and regions attended the ceremony, together with world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Argentine President Alberto Fernández, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among others.

As part of the Olympic tradition, members of Team Greece were the first to enter the stadium during the parade of athletes, followed by Team Turkey. As the host of the Winter Olympics, Team China were the last to march. Speed skater Gao Tingyu and skeleton athlete Zhao Dan carried the Chinese national flag for the squad.

At the end of the ceremony, the Olympic Cauldron was lit at the center of the stadium by the torch that had passed through the hands of some 1,200 torchbearers, including Bach himself, during a three-day relay in the three competition zones of Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

In the following 16 days, some 2,900 athletes will compete in 109 events of 15 disciplines under seven sports at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-02-04/Beijing-2022-Winter-Olympics-opening-ceremony-begins-17nLl93I95S/index.html

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BEIJING, Feb. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — China is celebrating the Chinese New Year and under a global gaze as it hosts the Winter Olympics, and the China-Russia relationship is also in the spotlight as Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Beijing on Friday.

Nearly three years after Putin’s last visit to China, the trip featured the 38th meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Russian president since 2013.

During the meeting, the two heads of state vowed to turn mutual trust between the two countries into cooperation in all fields.

Close communication maintained

Noting his attendance at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi at the invitation of Putin, Xi said that they promised to meet again in Beijing eight years later.

“Your visit this time fulfills our promise,” he said, adding that he hopes the meeting at the beginning of spring will inject more vitality into China-Russia relations.

“Lichun,” the first of the 24 solar terms on Chinese lunar calendar, falls on February 4 this year and it is considered the beginning of spring.

Putin said the exchange of visits at the Olympics is a symbol and a good tradition of close relations between the two countries’ heads of state.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped me from maintaining close exchanges with President Xi in various ways,” he said.

After the talks, Xi hosted a banquet for Putin and the two leaders attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Promoting all-round practical cooperation 

China and Russia will strengthen their strategic partnership in energy, steadily advance major oil and gas cooperation projects, and advance cooperation of scientific and technological innovation in frontier areas such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and the International Lunar Research Station project, according to Xi.

The Chinese president also highlighted the promotion of bilateral cooperation in goods and services, agriculture, green trade, medicine and health, and the digital economy.

Russia is ready to deepen cooperation with China in economy and trade, energy, science and technology, finance and transportation, Putin said.

Meanwhile, the two leaders agreed to jointly announce the Years of Sports Exchanges between China and Russia.

The two countries also signed a series of cooperation documents in key fields.

Strengthening coordination in international affairs

Xi stressed China and Russia’s commitment to deepening back-to-back strategic coordination in the face of profound and complex changes in the international situation, and highlighted the importance of strengthening coordination with Russia within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS.

Noting the joint statement on international relations in the new era and global sustainable development issued at the meeting, Putin said that it reflected the highly consistent position of Russia and China on major international issues.

Russia is ready to further strengthen strategic communication and coordination with China, firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly uphold the central coordinating role of the United Nations, he added.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-02-04/Chinese-Russian-presidents-meet-in-Beijing-17nr7lbqo0w/index.html

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