[World Report] Beijing Olympics, Hangzhou Asian Games not?

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on the 6th that the 19th Asian Games will be postponed.

The Asian Olympic Council is an organization that oversees sports in the Asian region and also hosts the Asian Games.

The 19th Asian Games was originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, the capital of China's Zhejiang Province, from September 10 to 25.

It was announced that the event was postponed just four months before the opening of the Asian Games.

Previously, China hosted the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, followed by the Beijing Winter Paralympics in March.

According to the Chinese authorities' assessment, "both competitions were successful."

Even at that time, Corona 19 was spreading in China, and some countries did not send the team due to Corona 19.

Then, why did the Beijing Winter Olympics be held as planned and the Hangzhou Asian Games were postponed?

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There is no 'reason for postponement' on the website of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee

In fact, the reason for the postponement cannot be found on the website of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee.

A brief announcement was posted saying, "We have decided to postpone the competition in consultation with the relevant organizations."

"The date of the new competition will be announced after further discussion by the Asian Olympic Council, the Chinese Olympic Committee, and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee, and I am confident that the postponed Asian Games will be successful."

In the 'Asia Games postponement related question and answer', only what will be done with the already built stadium and what the volunteers will do, etc. are mentioned, and why the competition was postponed is omitted.

At a briefing by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who acts as the 'mouth' of the Chinese government on various pending issues, a question about the reason for the postponement was asked, but only a short answer was returned: "Ask the responsible department for details."

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Fortunately, the reason is stated on the website of the Asian Olympic Council.

Even this only states that "we have considered the pandemic situation and the size of the competition."

For many players who have been sweating and looking only at the coming September, it can only be seen as a 'relentless' announcement.

"Postponed due to the pandemic and the scale of the competition"...

Doubts still remain

Questions still remain despite the announcement of the Asian Olympic Council.

First, the pandemic situation.

It is true that the recent Corona 19 situation in China is definitely worse than during the Beijing Winter Olympics.

It has been more than 40 days since Shanghai, China's largest city and economic capital, was locked down.

Hangzhou is about 180km from Shanghai.

It's relatively close.

There is growing concern that even the capital, Beijing, may be shut down.

Realistically, it can be difficult to create a festive atmosphere.

However, this does not mean that hosting the competition is impossible.

The situation in Shanghai has passed its peak, with even Chinese officials saying that "the end of the Shanghai lockdown tunnel is in sight".

Chinese quarantine experts predict that the lockdown will be lifted in stages by the end of this month.

As Hangzhou also has its own international airport, as in the Beijing Olympics, foreign athletes can enter Hangzhou directly without going through Shanghai, etc. and compete in a 'closed loop'.

The 'closed loop' is a quarantine system that blocks stadiums, athletes' villages, and training grounds from the outside, and has already been demonstrated at the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in Hangzhou's Zhejiang province has been only 1,400 since March.

Best of all, there are still 4 months left until September.

Of course, it is impossible to predict the pandemic situation in four months, but it has never been predicted that it will get worse than it is now.

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Xi Jinping's 'Zero Corona' declaration · 3rd term 'Coronation' may have been considered

The Asian Olympic Council has made it clear that the decision to postpone the Asian Games in Hangzhou came after consultation with China.

In the preface to the announcement, he said, "The decision was made after discussion with the China Olympic Committee (COC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC)."

Coincidentally, the day before the postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games was announced, China held the highest-level meeting, the Standing Committee of the Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China.

At the meeting, President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to maintain the so-called 'zero corona' policy.

"Our zero-corona policy has already achieved success in stages, is scientific and effective," Xi said.

He instructed that "Party committees and governments at all levels should recognize the complexity and difficulty of the fight against the epidemic and resolutely implement the decision of the Party Central Committee."

It has been declared that there will be no participation in the global trend 'With Corona'.

This was interpreted as nailing the nail, saying, "There is no change of direction," in a situation where national fatigue and dissatisfaction are rising due to the prolonged lockdown, and internal distrust in the Chinese-style zero-corona policy is growing.

As if to support this, the Standing Committee made a statement after the meeting, saying, "We will uphold the zero-corona policy without the slightest bit of agitation, and will fight resolutely with any word or action that distorts, suspects, or denies our quarantine policy."

It would have been difficult for the Asian Games to be held as planned, as the supreme leader himself repeatedly ordered a high-intensity quarantine policy.

If the Beijing Winter Olympics are applied mutatis mutandis, the athletes can enter the village after undergoing PCR testing without separate quarantine measures upon entry.

If you include the organizers of the event and the reporters, the size can reach tens of thousands.

The sense of deprivation may be exacerbated by the citizens of neighboring Shanghai, which has been locked down for more than 40 days.

Internal dissatisfaction may escalate as to 'What kind of festival is it when you put chains on your country's people and don't even give them food properly?'

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Another thing to pay attention to is the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party, scheduled for this fall.

Commonly referred to as the 'party congress', it is here that will determine whether or not President Xi Jinping will take office for a third time.

It can be called the 'coronation ceremony' for President Xi Jinping's long-term reign.

For President Xi, for the Communist Party, it may be a more important event than the Asian Games.

A specific party conference schedule has not been released yet, but if the Hangzhou Asian Games had not been postponed, it was expected to be held right after the Asian Games ended or about a month later.

If, after the Asian Games, the number of people infected with COVID-19 surges again, or if the evaluation of the Asian Games at home and abroad is not good, it may act as a bad news for President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party.

'Postponing the competition' may have been a safer choice than taking the risk.

For this reason, the Summer Universiade scheduled to be held in Chengdu, China next month has also been postponed.

The first postponement of the Asian Games...

Realistically, it will be held next year.

This is the first time that the Asian Summer Games have been postponed since the first competition was held in 1951.

As the Hangzhou Asian Games was scheduled for September and the events are summer sports, it is difficult to realistically set a new date within this year.

Naturally, we have no choice but to move on to next year.

The tradition that has been held in even-numbered years every four years since the 2nd Games in 1954 has also been broken this time.

What I am most concerned about is the players.

For players who have been honing their skills for September of this year, the postponement of the competition may be a sudden decision.

Next year, some players will be unable to compete at all due to age restrictions.

It is a decision for the safety of the team, but it is questionable how welcome the players will be.

Players' lives must be at stake, but I hope that the event was not postponed for the above reasons of Chinese politics.

I hope that the Olympics will be held as scheduled because all Western countries are watching, and that the Asian Games are not postponed because they are the events in Asia, which they consider to be the main players.