BEIJING Olympics organisers hit out at “lies” about Xinjiang, railed against “politicising” the Games and reiterated the Chinese government’s stance on Taiwan today.

The United States has led a diplomatic boycott by some Western nations at the Games over rights concerns in China, especially the fate of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Rights issues overshadow the build-up to the Games and roared back to the fore during a regular daily press conference featuring an IOC spokesman and officials from the local organising committee.

Campaigners said at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims have been incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, while there are also allegations of forced labour and sterilisations of women.

“These issues are irrelevant to the Winter Olympics, but I still feel obliged to make a quick comment again,” said Beijing 2022 Organising Committee spokesman Yan Jiarong, after foreign reporters asked about Xinjiang twice.

“The questions are based very much on lies. Some authorities have already disputed such false information with a lot of solid evidence.”

She also criticised what she called “lies by deliberate groups” over the region.

China vehemently denies all charges over its treatment of Uighurs, and maintains the camps are vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.

Yan was also bullish on the question of Taiwan.

China claims the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory to be re-taken one day, by force if necessary.

At all Olympic Games, athletes from Taiwan compete under the banner of “Chinese Taipei”.

“This is something that we really have to take a solemn position on,” said Yan, following a question about Taiwanese athletes at the Games and their attendance at the closing ceremony on Sunday.

“What I want to say is that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an indivisible part of it. This is a well-recognised international principle in the international community.

“We are always against the idea of politicising the Games.” – AFP, February 17, 2022.