Government/Politics - 44. page

Major Taiwanese news network China Times recently reported that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics received 16 million viewers in the United States on the NBC network. This includes the counts across all NBC platforms, including the USA Network, the NBC Sports app and the Peacock streaming service. The program was first broadcast live at 6:30 am ET and rebroadcasted during the evening highlights. This is being compared with the 2018 Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics in South Korea, when the opening ceremony attracted 28.3 million viewers on the NBC network. The Prime-time broadcast then alone attracted 27.9 million U.S. viewers to watch in front of their TVs. This year’s viewership represents a 43 percent drop from four years ago. The International Olympic Committee has been trying to save the ratings among young people for the games for years now. They have added breakdancing, skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and other events that young people may like. They have also been adjusting the rules of some events to speed up the pace of the competition, hoping to improve the visibility of the event. NBC paid $7.65 billion for the U.S. regional broadcasting rights of the Olympics. NBC is authorized to broadcast the Olympics until the year 2032.

Source: China Times, February 6, 2022
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20220206001996-260403?chdtv

A report shows that several members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have successful business connections with China. When talking about the IOC’s policies, they have downplayed China’s human rights issue.

John Coates has  been Vice President of the IOC (2013  to 2017 and 2020 to the present) and the President of Australian Olympic Committee: The Daily Beast conducted an investigation that showed that Mr. Coates has been the Chairman of William Inglis & Son Ltd, Australia’s largest and oldest bloodstock auctioneer. In its auction last year, a Chinese buyer bought horses worth over $13 million. In 2019, the auctioneer sold the horses worth $3.5 million to a “secret” China horse club . The company also sponsored “Inglis Sino-Australia Cup” Equestrian Competition in Shanxi Province, China, which the representative of its Chinese office said is the highest-prized competition that Inglis sponsored outside Australia.

Mr. Coates said the IOC pays attention to human right, but pressuring Beijing on the Xinjiang issue is not within the power of the IOC. He said the IOC should respect the hosting country’s sovereignty.

Dick Pound is a member of the IOC and former Vice President of the IOC. Mr. Pound is an advisor to Stikeman Elliott LLP, a Canadian law firm. The company has long history of experiences in China. Its website claims that it has provided legal services to many big Chinese enterprises, and listed several of them including, for example, China National Petroleum Corporation, CITIC Group, China Investment Corporation, along with may others.

Mr. Pound said human rights issues are political when answering Xinjiang forced labor camp and genocide question. He suggested (with hope) that an independent investigation on what is happening in Xinjiang would be helpful and maybe the Chinese are preparing to consider it.

Sebastian Coe, is a British member of the IOC. Mr. Coe is a Non-Executive Board Director of the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and receives $130,000 as annual pay. Out of FMG’s several billion dollars in revenue in 2020, ninety percent came from China. A Chinese state-run company is a major shareholder of FMG.

Mr. Coe said last year that an international political boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics had no meaning but would only cause damage.

Source: Epoch Times, February 5, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/2/5/n13557473.htm

On February 4, when a Dutch news reporter Sjoerd den Daas was doing a live broadcast on a street in Beijing, on his home TV station NOS, a Chinese authority’ staff-member in plain clothes grabbed his arm by force and dragged him around. The Chinese staff-member was wearing a red armband (indicating he was from the authorities). He dragged the reporter out of range of the camera and told him that he should not do broadcasting at that location. Then another Chinese staff member also took their lighting equipment. The TV news broadcast was interrupted and the home anchor was shocked and astonished. Sjoerd den Daas then moved to a parking lot at the corner to continue his TV broadcast. Later he told people that he was at the location where the Beijing authorities allowed news reporters to do broadcasts.

The International Olympic Games (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams said that they had contacted the NOS about this unfortunate incident. He further called it a single incident and assured people that they could continue their work in the “closed loop,” an isolated section that Beijing had set up for the Olympic athletes, staff, and reporters.

However, NOS said that the IOC had not contacted it. The IOC had not contacted the NOS management, the news and sports chief editor, the manager of the Olympic team in Beijing, nor the news reporter himself.  The IOC had not contacted any of them.

Sjoerd den Daas said this was not the first time he received this kind of treatment in China. He tweeted that in the past few weeks, he and several colleagues from other countries, were interfered with or were stopped multiple times when they were reporting about the Olympic Games.

Source: Epoch Times, February 5, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/2/5/n13557122.htm

According to the Sound of Hope radio network, on the second anniversary of the lockdown of Wuhan (due to the covid-19 outbreak), Ma Guoqiang, the former secretary of the Wuhan Municipal (Communist) Party Committee, who Xi Jinping dismissed for accountability (for the Wuhan Covid-19 Epidemic), made a high-profile comeback.

At the “two sessions” (the National People’s Congress and the People’s Political Consultative Conference) of Hubei Province on January 23, Ma Guoqiang was elected as the deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress. “Beijing News,” “Caixin,” “Phoenix.com” and other official media have reported the news of Ma Guoqiang’s new appointment.

In 2020, Xi Jinping removed Jiang Chaoliang, then secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, and Ma Guoqiang, Secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, to curb the loss of the regime’s reputation and credibility due to Wuhan’s covid-19 outbreak running out-of-control. Xi took the opportunity to replace the top positions with members of his faction to be in charge of Hubei.

Source: Sound of Hope, January 23, 2022
https://www.soundofhope.org/post/587362