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Post by Admin on Apr 18, 2020 21:05:32 GMT
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined Hugh Hewitt's radio show Friday morning to discuss the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party of China and the COVID-19 virus.
HUGH HEWITT, HOST: Now Mr. Secretary, I don’t know what they teach at Harvard Law, but at Michigan Law, they taught me that if a witness or a party lies about big things, you don’t believe them on anything. And on that theory, they’ve lied about some big things. I don’t know that I would trust them to put on the Olympic games if they told us it was safe to do it. Do you think the Olympic games scheduled for Beijing in 2022 ought to be moved?
SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO: We’ll have to take a look at that. I’m really focused on today. But Hugh, you do have to go back to other things that the Chinese Communist Party has committed to. They promised there’d be one country, two systems in Hong Kong, and yet they have expanded their repression there. They’ve promised that what was going on in the west, in Xinjiang, wasn’t harming the Muslim population, the Uighurs there in the West. We know what’s taking place. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe. Xi himself in the Rose Garden promised that they wouldn’t arm islands all across the South Pacific. They’ve done that. They’ve put significant weaponry there. And this is a country that the whole world needs to ensure that we watch what they do and not what they say. They want to be a great power. They want to join the community of civilized nations. To do that, you have to be open, you have to be transparent, you have to tell the truth. That’s our expectation of the Chinese Communist Party. And it has fallen short of that too often.
HEWITT: Doesn’t the world, though, need to respond in a coherent way, and taking back the Olympics is to me the most obvious display of condemnation of their lack of transparency, Mr. Secretary. Are there things like that on the drawing board?
POMPEO: So I’ve been in lots of conversations over the past, oh, three weeks or four weeks with colleagues all around the world, the President, too. He was on a call with all of these G-7 nations yesterday. There is enormous frustration, and not just with this incident, but with the growing challenges presented by a Chinese Communist Party that appears intent on failing to live up to its international obligations. I don’t know precisely what that response will be. But the time for accountability will come. And when we do that, we need to do it in a way that reflects the full scope of the problem set, not just what has occurred as a result of this pandemic, but the full problem set that it has presented. The President took it on. He saw that we had unfair trade relationship. We worked diligently to fix that. There are many dimensions to this challenge in the world. Not just the United States need to confront them in a way that delivers for the American people.
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Post by Admin on Apr 19, 2020 19:06:29 GMT
 The Tokyo Summer Olympics' postponement to 2021 has raised concerns over the marketing prospects of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, as Chinese organizers voiced caution on the issue. With the Tokyo Games, which were due to open on July 24, now delayed for a year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the original two-year marketing window between the two Games has been cut short significantly, sparking worries that media coverage, sponsorship revenue and international attention for the winter sports extravaganza will be diminished. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games said on Thursday it respects the decision to postpone the Tokyo Games and will start assessing the delay's subsequent effect on the 2022 Winter Olympics.  "We understand the decision made by the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese organizers to postpone the Games. We believe the Tokyo Olympics will be a success after being moved to a proper date," the Beijing 2022 organizing committee said in a short statement on Thursday. "Our preparation for the 2022 Winter Olympics has been progressing on the right track. We will carefully evaluate the impact of the Tokyo Games' postponement on the Beijing Winter Olympics. We will keep close communication with the IOC and all stakeholders involved to keep working hard for the success of the Beijing Winter Games." Delivering the Winter Games less than a year after the Olympic flame goes out in Tokyo, Chinese organizers will face challenges in maintaining media exposure, public interest and sponsorship revenues to the level the Beijing Games would've enjoyed if not for the postponement, observers said. With the coronavirus outbreak affecting sponsors' investment in sporting events globally, the changing tide on the marketing front for the Olympics might cast a shadow on Beijing 2022, said Wei Jizhong, a former secretary-general of the Chinese Olympic Committee. "Sponsors and business partners of the Games will have to keep investing extra money in their marketing programs for Tokyo if the Games are postponed, potentially forcing them to reduce their budgets for the next Olympics," he said. |
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Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2020 18:31:04 GMT
People's Bank of China (PBoC) has officially confirmed the pilot of its central bank digital currency (CBDC). Rolled out across four cities so far, its broader aim is to ready the digital Yuan for use in the 2022 Winter Olympics, held in Beijing. Tests to improve the functionality of the digital Yuan are already underway in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Xiong'an, China's central bank told the Wall Street Journal Monday. This confirms previous reports that the novel currency, dubbed ‘digital currency/electronic payment’ (DC/EP)—had moved into public beta.  Digital Yuan set for 2022 Winter Olympics The trial is apparently prepping the DC/EP for use at the 2022 Winter Olympics, meaning that an official launch could be close at hand.  As reported by Decrypt, initial tests for the DC/EP will involve supplementing half of civil servants' transport subsidies with the digital Yuan. Government workers have already been asked to install a digital wallet on their smartphones, a source told the WSJ. |
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2020 0:07:19 GMT
China's top sports body on Thursday moved to cancel nearly all remaining public sporting events in the country for the remainder of 2020, citing coronavirus concerns.
The Associated Press reported that the country's General Administration of Sports issued the order affecting a number of upcoming planned sporting events including the world finals of badminton in Guangzhou as well as others such as Formula One's Shanghai Grand Prix.
The order does not reportedly affect trials for the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games, which are slated to take place in Beijing.
A statement from the General Administration of Sports pointed to "science and order" as reasons for the cancellations, according to the AP.
The move will affect a number of tennis events as well as a pair of high-profile golf events. It will also affect sport climbing, auto racing, and cycling events.
The country has seen its rate of new coronavirus infections largely remain steady since it plateaued earlier this year, and has reported less than 85,000 total cases of the disease. In the U.S., authorities have confirmed more than 3 million cases.
China and the U.S. have been at odds over the former's handling of the early days of the pandemic, with top U.S. officials repeatedly accusing Chinese officials of not doing enough to stop the virus from leaving its borders.
Despite plans to push the 2020 Olympics to 2021, officials have warned that plans to hold the games in Tokyo next year could still be in jeopardy due to the ongoing pandemic.
"I don't think anyone would be able to say if it is going to be possible to get it under control by next July or not," Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. "We're certainly are not in a position to give you a clear answer."
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