Beijing’s Winter Olympics symbolise a world divided

“TOGETHER FOR a shared future” is China’s wishful motto for the Winter Olympics, which will formally begin with fireworks and dancing at a ceremony in Beijing on February 4th. Officials say the slogan means humanity should work in harmony to conquer hardships such as the pandemic and its economic fallout. China’s state-run news agency says the games will “break down barriers and prejudices, and illuminate the way forward”. Sadly, they will not. The event symbolises a world divided by politics and the virus, and a China turning inward.No leader of a big Western power will attend the games. The pandemic has provided some with an excuse for staying away. But the main reason is the scale of the repression that Xi Jinping has unleashed since he took power in 2012. In Xinjiang Mr Xi has sent about 1m people, mostly ethnic Uyghurs, to camps to “cure” them of “extremism”—a euphemism for stamping out their culture and Muslim faith. In Hong Kong he has crushed a liberal society, turning dissent into a crime. His security forces have kept a chokehold on Tibet.