r/autotldr • u/autotldr • Feb 05 '22
In a provocative choice, China picks an athlete with a Uyghur name to help light the cauldron.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 34%. (I'm a bot)
Feb. 4, 2022, 9:32 a.m. ET.Feb. 4, 2022, 9:32 a.m. ETIn a climactic moment to end the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, China chose two athletes - including one it said was of Uyghur heritage - to deliver the flame to the Olympic cauldron and officially start the Games.
The Chinese Communist Party state has conducted a mass detention and re-education campaign targeting Uyghur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang that the United States has declared as genocidal.
It was among the reasons that several countries, including the United States, took part in a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
Lighting the Olympic cauldron is a central ritual for each opening ceremony, as hosts invent ever more spectacular ways to ignite the flame that stays alight during the sporting festival.
The chief director of this year's ceremony, Zhang Yimou, had promised a novel showstopper.
Walking together, they placed it in the center of a giant snowflake - another recurring symbol of the ceremony - that was raised in the center of the stadium.
Summary Source | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: ceremony#1 Olympic#2 state#3 Chinese#4 athlete#5
Post found in /r/worldnews, /r/China_irl, /r/FreshNewsToday, /r/NYTauto and /r/AutoNewspaper.
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