TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Despite claims that the Olympics should not be politicized, a Chinese official on Thursday (Feb. 17) made an overtly political comment about Taiwan and dismissed human rights violations in Xinjiang as "lies."

At a press conference on Thursday, Yan Jiarong (嚴家蓉), spokesperson for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), torpedoed purported efforts by the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) to keep politics out of the Winter Games. On at least two occasions, Yan interrupted responses to questions posed to IOC spokesman Mark Adams to inject politically charged comments on Taiwan and Xinjiang.

When Adams was answering a question about Taiwan's attendance at the closing ceremony on Sunday (Feb. 20), Yan in English interjected and said "Mark, could I just make some supplementary remarks?" She then switched to Mandarin and claimed, "Taiwan is an indivisible part of China and this is a well recognized international principle and well recognized in the international community."

After making a highly subjective statement about Taiwan's political status, Yan then contradicted herself by declaring, "We are always against the idea of politicizing the Olympic Games." When pointing out that the IOC has 206 members, including the Chinese Olympic Committee, she struggled with the current terminology required by the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) for Taiwan.

She first referred to "Taiwan," then said "Taiwan, China," before finally reaching the finish line with "Chinese Taipei," the obligatory IOC name for Taiwan's Olympic team. She tried to downgrade Taiwan's status by emphasizing that Taiwan's Olympic Committee is a "regional Olympic committee" allegedly under the auspices of the Chinese Olympic Committee, but the two committees are in fact separate entities.

When a reporter pointed out to Adams that Yan had just "politicized" the games by announcing China's political views on Taiwan, he tried to evade the question. "There are views on all sorts of things around the world, but our job is to make sure the Games take place," said Adams.

Another reporter then asked Adams about the IOC's position on the "concentration camps" in Xinjiang and whether China is exploiting forced labor in the territory. Yan again interjected and said, "I think these questions are very much based on lies."

Yan tried to cull any further questioning on human rights violations in Xinjiang by saying, "Some authorities have already disputed this false information. There is a lot of solid evidence. You are very welcome to refer to all that evidence and the facts," without providing any information on where such "evidence and facts" could be obtained.

During today’s press briefing, @Beijing2022 organizing committee spokeswoman Yan Jiarong reiterated that China opposed any politicization of the games. Yet, she made a point of reading off her script saying "there is only one China and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China." pic.twitter.com/7GtOBe4E8E

— David Demes 戴達衛 (@DemesDavid) February 17, 2022