Xi Jinping
FILE - Gold medalist China's Eileen Gu celebrates during a medal ceremony for the women's freestyle skiing halfpipe competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. Gu, the California-born athlete who won two gold medals for China in freestyle skiing at the recent Beijing Olympics, has signed on to work for Salt Lake City's bid for the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
Chinese Olympian Eileen Gu working for Salt Lake Games bid

By Stephen Wade Jun. 08, 2022 01:52 AM EDT

FILE - The Chinese flag is raised as the next host country during the closing ceremony for the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sept. 2, 2018. Less than three months after Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, reports in China on Friday, May 6, 2022 said this year's Asian Games are being postponed because of concerns over the spreading omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
Asian Games in China postponed because of spread of COVID-19

By Stephen Wade May. 06, 2022 02:51 AM EDT

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, greets International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at an event welcoming IOC members ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympics at the Rus Hotel, Feb. 4, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. The International Olympic Committee has always been political, from the sheikhs and royals in its membership to a seat at the United Nations to pushing for peace talks between the Koreas. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago exposed its irreconcilable claims of “political neutrality.” (AP Photo/David Goldman, Pool, File)
Russia invasion upends Olympic 'neutrality' — if it existed

By Stephen Wade Mar. 15, 2022 12:07 AM EDT

Fireworks ignite during the closing ceremony at the 2022 Winter Paralympics, Sunday, March 13, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Paralympics close to end Asia's run at center of world sport

Mar. 13, 2022 07:28 AM EDT

Maksym Yarovyi of Ukraine carries the flag as the team makes their entrance during the opening ceremony at the 2022 Winter Paralympics, Friday, March 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
As war rages, Paralympics open in Beijing without Russia

By Ken Moritsugu Mar. 04, 2022 12:52 AM EST

A child plays with a red scarf near a decoration for the Beijing Winter Olympics Games in front of the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Jan. 18, 2022. The just-concluded Winter Olympics weren’t China's big event of the year, internally, at least. For the Communist Party, that comes this fall at a major meeting that will likely cement Xi Jinping's position as one of the nation's most powerful leaders in its seven decades of Communist rule. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
For Chinese leaders, Olympics weren't 2022's big-ticket item

By Ken Moritsugu Feb. 21, 2022 09:19 PM EST

An Olympic shuttle bus approaches the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Analysis: China's bubble Olympics kept reality at a distance

By Ted Anthony Feb. 21, 2022 12:32 AM EST

FILE - Mark McMorris of Canada competes during the men's snowboard big air finals of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong. File)
After Beijing bubble bursts, can the IOC save the Olympics?

By Eddie Pells Feb. 20, 2022 04:35 AM EST

The Olympic Rings are illuminated at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Beijing's Olympics close, ending safe but odd global moment

By Ted Anthony Feb. 20, 2022 02:50 AM EST

The North Korean flag flies above the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. As Beijing holds the winter Olympic games, hundreds of North Koreans are enduring perhaps the longest-running pandemic-enforced separation in the world. The isolationist Communist state has sealed off its borders so tightly that they've left their own ambassador to China stranded in Beijing. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)
BEIJING SNAPSHOT: N. Korea not at Games but diplomat remains

By Dake Kang Feb. 17, 2022 05:28 AM EST

Olympic Games worker Cathy Chen stands for a photo in the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing. In her mind, Chen pictures a scene that she herself says could be drawn from a TV drama: Falling into the arms of her husband after long months apart, when he meets her off the plane from Beijing. Scooping up their two young daughters and squeezing them tight. "I just imagine when we’re back together,” the Olympic Games worker says, "and I just can’t control myself.” (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
At Winter Olympics, virus fight waged with worker sacrifices

By John Leicester Feb. 13, 2022 07:10 PM EST

A security guard looks at his phone in the lobby area of the Tibet Hotel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
BEIJING DIARY: A taste of Tibet with Chinese characteristics

By Kelvin Chan Feb. 11, 2022 07:52 PM EST

In this frame from video, Vladyslav Heraskevych, of Ukraine, holds a sign that reads "No War in Ukraine" after finishing a run at the men's skeleton competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (NBC via AP)
Olympian flashes 'No War in Ukraine' sign after competing

By Tim Reynolds Feb. 11, 2022 08:28 AM EST

The lit Badaling section of the Great Wall of China is seen near the 2022 Winter Olympics logo on the outskirts of Beijing on Feb. 8, 2022. China has thousands of years of doing things in a really big way, reinforcing its perceived place in the world and the political power of its leaders — from emperors to Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. None of this bigness is new. It goes back to a dozen dynasties that ruled China for thousands of years, a tradition of projecting power that was adopted by the Chinese Communist Party when it came to power in 1949. It could be termed simply: big, bigger and biggest — and then some. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Home of the huge: China has long history of going really big

By Stephen Wade Feb. 10, 2022 12:27 AM EST

A staff prepares for the arrival of Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, for the Olympic Truce Mural ceremony at the Olympic Village ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, in Beijing. (Wang Zhao/Pool Photo via AP)
EXPLAINER: What in the world is the Olympic Truce?

By Mallika Sen Feb. 08, 2022 10:10 AM EST

FILE - Peng Shuai, of China, serves to Maria Sakkari, of Greece, during the second round of the US Open tennis championships Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
Peng Shuai saga hews to familiar script in China

By Sarah Dilorenzo Feb. 07, 2022 05:53 AM EST

FILE - China's Peng Shuai serves to Japan's Nao Hibino during their first round singles match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 21, 2020. The whereabout of Peng remains a pressing question at the Beijing Olympics. Peng’s accusations of sexual assault months ago against former vice premier Zhang Gaoli, once a member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, were scrubbed almost immediately from the internet in China. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File)
Peng Shuai emerges at Olympics, gives controlled interview

By John Leicester Feb. 06, 2022 10:55 PM EST

FILE - Student activists wear masks with the colors of the pro-independence East Turkistan flag during a rally to protest the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, outside the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Dozens of students staged the rally demanding the cancellation of the Beijing Olympics over alleged human rights violations against Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority in China's region of Xinjiang. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File)
What message did China send by choosing Uyghur torchbearer?

By John Leicester Feb. 05, 2022 03:09 AM EST

FILE - North Korea's Hwang Chung Gum and South Korea's Won Yun-jong carry the unification flag during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Feb. 9, 2018. North Korea basked in the global limelight during the last Winter Games in South Korea, with hundreds of athletes, cheerleaders and officials pushing hard to woo their South Korean and U.S. rivals in a now-stalled bid for diplomacy. Four years later, as the 2022 Winter Olympics come to its main ally and neighbor China, North Korea isn't sending any athletes and officials because of coronavirus fears. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
'Someone else's festival': No North Korea at ally's Olympics

By Hyung-Jin Kim And Kim Tong-Hyung Feb. 04, 2022 11:29 PM EST

The Chinese and Olympic flags fly during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In Beijing, Olympic ideals coexist with authoritarian rule

By Tim Sullivan Feb. 04, 2022 11:17 PM EST