The Latest Breaking News from Xinjiang

Last June, Canada’s delegation to the United Nations was part of an international effort calling for UN inspectors to have free and unfettered access to China’s Xinjiang region to assess reports of human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.

Many issues have cast a shadow over the Beijing Winter Olympics in recent weeks, from China’s controversial “zero-COVID” approach to the looming possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Brands such as Coca-Cola, Airbnb and Visa have paid millions to sponsor the Winter Games, which began Friday in Beijing. In doing so, rights groups say they are endorsing human rights violations, including the detention of millions of Uighur Muslims.

‘You can’t say they’re just avoiding the tough stuff entirely’

Chinese leader Xi Jinping views the Olympic Games — he has pored over venue blueprints and been involved in every aspect of planning — as a validation not only of his statecraft but also of the rise of a confident, economically robust nation that is rearranging the world order.

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened a Beijing Winter Olympics on Friday that not only bear the mark of the global coronavirus pandemic but are also mixing sport and global politics as few others have since the era of the Cold War.

The United States' diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics is a protest of human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

On eve of Winter Games opening ceremonies, Congress raises voices of human rights activists amid US diplomatic boycott.

Can Xi Jinping's China pull it off? Can happy pictures of a torch relay reduced to 72 hours and tightly cropped images of top-level competitions make the world forget about the empty seats, the Covid bubble, the artificial snow, the tight security and the pressure on sponsors over human rights…