I’m sounding like a broken record but such a pity that, because of #Covid, this stadium couldn’t be full for the men’s figure skating today. Imagine how hard it would have been to get tickets if they’d gone on sale. That said, feeling privileged to be able to see these athletes.
Meanwhile the big figure skating news at the #Beijing2022 Winter Olympics is that the teams gold medal for #Russia is now in doubt following what will no doubt be a much-debated and contested “legal issue”.
Just realised we’ve got an Aussie coming up here at the men’s figure skating. Go you little ripper! #Beijing2022#China
Crowd building up a little more. Three minutes to go until the start. #Beijing2022#China
Crowd favourite so far, Donovan Carrillo from #Mexico. People loved his music and who doesn’t like a little Dean Martin? He had everyone clapping along in time to the Latin rhythms. He’s currently in 4th place. #Beijing2022#China
You little ripper! Brendan Kerry with a brilliant performance goes into first place for #Australia! #Beijing2022#China
But the Rocketman Nathan Chen from the #USA comes and wins gold! His coach looks pretty impressed. That was an amazing event to watch. #Beijing2022#China
What a disgraceful piece of garbage the Communist Party’s dirt rag the Global Times is. Anyone who works there should feel ashamed of themselves. Oh my god! I (wait for it) blocked a follower. The Govt here blocks all of Twitter because it distrusts Chinese people you imbeciles.
If people are interested in #China’s media, the best is Sixth Tone, Caixin etc and the absolute worst is the Global Times. Imagine a gutless, toilet paper tabloid with no ethics, then you give it the bully power of #China’s Communist Party... there you have the @globaltimesnews
To state the bleedin obvious: blocking someone on Twitter who attacks you isn’t threatening their freedom of speech. They can say whatever they like on Twitter but I don’t have to engage with it. Yet #China completely blocking Twitter destroys freedom of speech, denies knowledge.
If you have a read of this piece I hope you get a sense of how cool and nice the #Beijing2020 Olympic volunteers are, as with the spectators I met. Such a pity these Games & #Tokyo last year had to be held in a time of Rona and that more people couldn’t participate. #China
Following the latest co-ordinated Olympic attack campaign by trolls and gaggle of other D-grade apologists (like the Bike Riding Bozo) I’ll be limiting responses to my tweets for a bit. Sorry about that for normal people.
And here is yet another “wolf warrior wannabe” diplomat fuelling harassment of foreign correspondents in #China. In this case me. Note that the Foreign Ministry here is supposed to be responsible for the wellbeing of international journalists based in China.
Also CaoYi has blocked me on twitter & yet wants to get on board with the cry baby Party attack dogs who think they should be able to harass foreign correspondents without being blocked. Plus his government blocks all of Twitter because it doesn’t trust its own citizens to use it
After a weekend of mass #Covid testing in #Beijing, there is a lot more today. Whole housing communities are being told to be tested, in some cases twice in two days. Officials at one compound told me this was not because of infected residents but as a precaution. #China
You can see from the video above that there is a very high proportion of people wearing masks in #Beijing, even outdoors (in the case of this clip, 100% of people). #China
Beijing 2022 vs 2008: Two Olympics and two very different Chinas... a piece by me. bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…
Interested to hear from others in #China who were also here in 2008 what they make of the differences between the #Beijing of then and now and the Olympic ambiance of 2022 v 2008. (Below is my piece from today) “Two Olympics and two very different Chinas” bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…
BTW yes I realise the twitter link has 2018 instead of 2008 for some annoying reason. (I’m now talking to your subconscious: Unsee! Unsee!).