Sport, politics and Covid collide at the Beijing Winter Olympics

The Games will open on Friday in a country that hopes sport will be the talking point. But political twists or a resurgent virus could leave the event skating on thin ice

Hosting the Winter Olympics during a pandemic was always going to test the Chinese government, by putting its ever-growing ability to exercise political control and virus containment on a collision course with its enthusiasm for international prestige and status.

The 2022 Winter Games, which open on Friday, are being held at a time of particularly intense western criticism of China over human rights abuses, from the mass persecution of Uyghurs in far western Xinjiang - labelled a genocide by the United States - and other groups including Tibetans, to the crushing of Hong Kong's freedoms.