Uyghur cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang called it “a huge honor” to light the cauldron for the 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony hosted in Beijing on Friday, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
“That moment will encourage me every day for the rest of my life,” the 20-year-old ethnic minority woman from the far-western Xinjiang region told Xinhua on Sunday, with the report making no mention of foreign accusations that the Chinese government is engaged in human rights abuses in her home region.
File photo shows Dinigeer Yilamujiang (L) and Zhao Jiawen, the final runners of the torch relay, during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Stadium on Feb. 4, 2022. (Kyodo)
Concern over treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang has led the United States and some other democratic countries to implement a diplomatic boycott of the games.
China has fiercely denied these claims. Having Yilamujiang light the cauldron with Nordic combined athlete Zhao Jiawen, a 21-year-old member of the Han Chinese majority, may be an apparent response to the foreign accusations, indicating ethnic minorities can play a major role in Chinese society.
The country keeps a tight lid on media, and state media is thought to be used to fend off criticism that China, a country with 56 official ethnic groups, is attempting coercive ethnic assimilation into mainstream Han culture.
“I was so excited when I found out we were going to place the torch. It’s a huge honor for me!,” Yilamujiang told Xinhua. The news agency also said she was determined to carry out such an important mission given to her.
However, the athlete did not appear before media at the end of her 15-kilometer cross-country skiathlon on Saturday, where she finished 43rd.
Critics have accused China of using counterterrorism as an excuse for mass incarceration of Uyghur Muslims in so-called re-education camps.
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