Sports show friendship can prevail over politics: China Daily editorial

The congratulations Susanne Lyons, chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee board of directors, offered on Feb 12 to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, for holding a successful event amid the COVID-19 pandemic point to the fact that the Olympic spirit can prevail over politics.

Lyons, who is also the head of Team USA to the Beijing Winter Olympics, described the facilities and services at the Games as "impressive" and said that the US athletes were satisfied.

The organizers have made every effort to ensure the international sports event is a success and to make it possible for all athletes to make the best of their potential. As the host city of the 2022 Winter Games, Beijing has done what it can within its means to offer the best facilities and services, with which most athletes are quite satisfied according to interviews with them.

Sports can definitely promote friendship between peoples from different countries and positively impact international relations. The "ping-pong diplomacy" of 51 years ago is a case in point. It opened the door to friendship not just between the Chinese and US players, but also the development of relations between China and the United States.

Amid the frustrations that have soured bilateral relations in the past couple of years, the current Games offer an opportunity for athletes from China and the US to communicate and hopefully promote more understanding between the two peoples.

With the Beijing Games, China hopes that the Olympic Spirit can function as a vehicle to convey to the world that there is more to international relations than geopolitical games.

The friendship forged between athletes from different countries should deliver a message to politicians in all countries that globalization and multilateralism are the right way for the international community to seek common development and address the common challenges facing humanity.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of former US president Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. The amicable relations between the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its Chinese counterpart as well as the friendship forged between athletes from both countries during the current Games should serve as a reminder to US politicians that their politicization of the Games in Beijing is not in the interest of both peoples.

The 50th anniversary of Nixon's visit along with the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics should serve as food for thought for US politicians on China-US relations.

They should reflect on what the US has been doing in its attempt to contain the rise of China, such as its military activities in the South China Sea, its meddling in the Taiwan question and its acts to estrange China's relations with its neighbors, and consider not only the damage those actions have done to China-US relations, but also their broader downsides to the global situation as a whole, which serve no country's interests.