Chinese President Xi Jinping pledges support for Tokyo Olympics
Chinese President Xi Jinping / AP-Yonhap
Chinese President Xi Jinping told International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach, Friday, that his country will support the holding of this summer's Tokyo Games, despite the COVID-19 pandemic showing few sign of easing soon in Japan.
The official Xinhua news agency also quoted Xi as saying, during a telephone conversation with Bach, that China was confident about hosting the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics next year on schedule despite the pandemic.
Xi's remarks came as calls are mounting both at home and abroad for the Tokyo Games to be postponed or cancelled amid the continued spread of the coronavirus, while Beijing faces a potential Olympic boycott by democratic nations condemning its alleged human rights violations.
In April, Japanese government sources said Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi back-pedaled on a previous pledge to cooperate in making the Beijing Olympics a success during a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
The change in stance indicated that Japan, a close US ally, has started to fall into step with the administration of President Joe Biden, which has ramped up criticism of China's alleged human rights abuses in its far-western Xinjiang region.
Xi, however, may be trying to prevent relations between China and its neighbor from souring further by expressing support for the Tokyo Games, as China-US tensions have escalated over several economic and security matters, according to pundits.
The Chinese Communist-led government has been accused of mass detention of the country's Muslim Uygur minority, who oppose growing state surveillance, under a "re-education" campaign in Xinjiang.
China has consistently said its detention camps are vocational training centers established to preemptively combat terrorism and religious extremism, urging the United States not to interfere in its "internal affairs".
In Japan, meanwhile, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga extended a state of emergency covering the capital to May 31, Friday, past its scheduled end date of May 11, having decided more time was needed to bring down COVID-19 cases.
The change will leave a margin of less than two months before the July 23 start of the Games, which were postponed last year.
Bach's planned visit to Japan in mid-May will be "very difficult" against the backdrop of a resurgence of infections in the country, Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the Japanese organizing body for the Summer Games, said Friday.
Japanese media reports have said Bach would attend a torch relay ceremony in the western city of Hiroshima, May 17, but both Hashimoto and the IOC said the visit had not been finalized.