The 2008 Games were an unmistakable statement of Beijing’s role on the global stage, but Ms Brownell said the motives for the 2022 bid were more probably rooted in inter-regional rivalry.
Advertisement
This is unexpected, to say the least.
Massimov with reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Fang Li, the environmental protection department director of Beijing’s bid team, promises that more effort will be made to deal with the air quality in the city.
Tell me about the bids.
A key element of the country’s existing plans is the development of a winter sports industry and meeting a growing demand for recreational activity and sport.
“The Olympic Games are needed only for those in power to demonstrate to the world that the country lives according to democratic standards, while in fact it has nothing to do with democracy”, said Saken Bektiyar, a painter aged 54.
Infrastructure budget: $4.5 billion, including projects not directly for Olympics.
Handing the 2014 Winter Olympics to Sochi, the subtropical Russian resort on the edge of the Black Sea, proved that a natural winter wasn’t quite necessary.
Ms Zhanyl Baltabayeva: ” Winter sports is our passion in Almaty and our unbelievable and accessible venues will be a huge benefit to all athletes. The mountain area for possible ski events receives a reported average of 39 inches of snow per year, which would require a heavy reliance on artificial snow.
Weather appears as a common theme in both bids, too. However, the primary factor that will keep costs low is the city’s ability to offer real snow.
[Want to host the Olympics? The changes put a stronger focus on sustainability, legacy and transparency, and make it easier for host cities to tailor Games that meet their needs rather than trying to fit a template.
“This is because the cost has been a concern for many, many hosts in the past, so now European countries don’t want to invest – except Russian Federation”.
This sounds like a given. The city pulled off a Summer Olympics in 2008 and China has the world’s second-largest GDP at about $10 trillion.
The two locations in the running are Beijing and Almaty, a city of 1.6 million people in Kazakhstan.
But don’t discount Almaty so quickly.
Previous winter bids: 2014 (failed to make list of finalists).
Du said a victory on Friday would send Beijing the message that its abuses would be tolerated, “no matter how rampant”. It’s Asia that’s winning out. Beijing would become the first city to host the summer and winter Games.
Both China and Kazakhstan have been slammed by watchdogs in recent years. And if the Games were played only on ice, Beijing could hold them right now.
“Chinese and Kazakh authorities are openly hostile to media and activists who criticize the government and fail to protect freedom of expression, assembly, and association and other basic human rights, ” Human Rights Watch said in a release last week.
Kazakhstan’s woes have largely been rooted in state clampdowns on media, activism and criticism, as well as violence and discrimination against its LGBT community.
“The human rights environment is now generally considered probably the worst environment since 1989 because of the crackdown on civil society”, Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang said.
The two candidates were both criticised by human rights watchgroup over its sketchy human rights record, though Kazakhstan said it is working to improve the situation.
Advertisement
This picture taken on Jan 17 shows people skiing at the Yunding Ski Field, one of the proposed venues for Alpine skiing if Beijing wins the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Chongli town, near Zhangjiakou, in China’s Hebei Province. This is especially the case when it comes to the Winter Games, as a majority of the members have little connection with winter sports. In a nod to Beijing’s notorious air quality, officials have pledged improvements.
