Xi Jinping sees Beijing Olympics as validation of his power
Chinese leader Xi Jinping views the Olympic Games — he has pored over venue blueprints and been involved in every aspect of planning — as a validation not only of his statecraft but also of the rise of a confident, economically robust nation that is rearranging the world order.
Beijing's second Olympics, opening this week amid the world's strictest COVID-19 controls, mass incarceration of minorities in Xinjiang, military threats to Taiwan and the dismantling of civil rights in Hong Kong, are a statement of defiance. They are a declaration that Xi's Communist Party no longer needs the acceptance of the West at a time when much of the planet is beholden to a patriotic and powerful China.
"The world is turning to China, and China is ready," Xi said in a video address to an International Olympic Committee session Thursday.
Much has changed since China sought to impress the globe when it hosted the stunningly choreographed 2008 Summer Olympics. Ai Weiwei, the
