Top Chinese Events 2022: Olympics, Boeing 737 crash, Pelosi’s visit, CCP meeting

BEIJING, December 30 – RIA Novosti. The following year went down in Chinese history with a number of important events in the fields of politics, sports, health, space exploration, the main ones of which were included in the material of RIA Novosti.

The 2022 Winter Olympics were held in Beijing from February 4-20. China’s capital became the first city in the world to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The Games were remembered for strict anti-COVID measures for athletes and spectators, a “diplomatic boycott” by several countries, a doping scandal involving figure skater Kamila Valieva, and the hunt for the Winter Olympics mascot panda Bing Dundong.

At the games, the Russian national team won 32 medals (six gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze) and took second place after the Norwegians (37) in the total number of awards. In the medal standings (calculated by the number of gold medals), the Russians took ninth place. The Norwegian team takes the first place in the medal rankings. The Chinese team placed third.

On March 21, China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 flight MU5735 crashed from Kunming to Guangzhou in Teng County, Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. There were 132 people on board, all Chinese nationals, including 123 passengers and nine crew members, all of whom were declared dead.

The crash of the Boeing 737 was China’s worst air disaster in 11.5 years, before that Chinese civil aviation had been flying safely for 138 consecutive months.

Another tragedy that caused many casualties occurred in Sichuan province in the southwestern part of the country. On September 5, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 occurred in the Ludin (Jagsamka) district of the Gardze-Tibet Autonomous Region. As a result of the earthquake, 243 private residences and two public buildings were destroyed, more than 13 thousand private residences and 142 public buildings were damaged, more than 300 hotels, small hotels and guesthouses were also damaged, the power of many settlements was cut, many of them including the highway. Infrastructure facilities on the highway were damaged. Authorities evacuated more than 10,000 people from the affected areas. At least 93 people were victims of the earthquake.

In August 2022, one of the main topics of the world media was the visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. Seeing the island as one of its own provinces, China saw the US support for Taiwanese separatism in this move, condemned Pelosi’s visit and held large-scale military exercises. In the midst of the exercise, China Central Television broadcast an article stating that the PLA will now hold exercises “regularly” east of the so-called “midline” of the Taiwan Strait.

In October, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China approved amendments to the CCP Statutes against Taiwan’s independence, which specifically emphasized the need to decisively suppress and contain pro-independence separatist forces on the island. Speaking at the 20th Congress of the CCP, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China will sincerely seek peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but will not give up on the use of force.

The main domestic political event of 2022 for the PRC was the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, held October 16-22. As a result, a new composition of the country’s party leadership was elected, and Xi Jinping was elected General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee for the third time and confirmed as Chairman of the Military Council of the CPC Central Committee for the third time. .

The Congress elected the composition of the new 205-member Central Committee, which was approved by the 24-member Politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. The composition of the PCPB has changed dramatically, with only three of the seven members retaining their seats on the standing committee – Xi Jinping, Zhao Leji and Wang Huning, four politicians entered the Politburo Standing Committee for the first time – these are Li Qiang, Li Xi, Cai Qi and Ding Xuexiang.

Members of the Politburo Standing Committee occupy the highest party and state positions, all decisions in the Standing Committee are taken on the basis of general consensus.

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin died in Shanghai on November 30 at the age of 96. The former Chinese President was suffering from leukemia and multiple organ failure. PRC’s senior party leadership, including Xi Jinping and former Chinese President Hu Jintao, attended the farewell ceremony at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing on December 5. On the same day, Jiang Zemin’s body was cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Memorial Cemetery. Jiang Zemin’s ashes were scattered over the sea from a warship at the mouth of the Yangtze River in eastern China on December 11.

Jiang Zemin served as the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee from 1989 to 2002 and as President of the People’s Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, when Hu Jintao took over the chairmanship.

Jiang Zemin’s leadership period is commemorated with a series of achievements China has achieved both in the economic field and in the international arena. In 1997, under Jiang Zeming, Hong Kong was returned to China from Great Britain, and in 1999 the Portuguese colony of Macau was returned to Chinese control. In 2001, China joined the WTO, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was established that same year. In addition, in 2001, the Good Neighborhood, Friendship and Cooperation Agreement was signed between the Russian Federation and the PRC. In the same 2001, Beijing was named the capital of the XXIX Summer Olympic Games.

All of 2022 in China was spent under the banner of an uncompromising fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, throughout the year the Chinese authorities implemented a policy of “zero tolerance” to the virus, which led to regular lockdowns in many Chinese cities. The most famous of these was Shanghai, where millions of residents of the metropolis in the east of the country were in quarantine from March 28 to June 1.

In late autumn, a new wave of disease swept through China. Since the beginning of November, due to the large number of local COVID-19 outbreaks, all areas in many cities of the country have been quarantined and their residents had to undergo regular PCR testing. Against this background, at the end of November, protests were held in some of China’s major cities – Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan – against the very strict anti-COVID restrictions, with demonstrators demanding the immediate cancellation of curfews and an end to regular restrictions. the beginning of a policy of mitigation of anti-epidemic measures alongside large-scale PCR testing.

On December 7, Chinese authorities issued a statement announcing that measures have been taken to optimize anti-epidemiological policy amid acute public dissatisfaction with the overly strict “zero tolerance” policy towards COVID-19. Measures include abolishing indiscriminate universal PCR testing, the ability to stay in home isolation for asymptomatic and mild illness, lifting restrictions on purchasing antipyretics online and offline, and accelerating vaccination of the elderly.

The PRC Health Commission said on 26 December that people arriving in China from 8 January 2023 will need to have a PCR test for COVID-19 48 hours before departure, while people with a negative PCR test result will be able to enter China without entering. Health code, PCR testing and central isolation will be canceled for anyone entering the PRC.

In 2022, China actively developed its space program, in particular the construction of a national orbital station. On November 3, the assembly of the basic configuration of the Tiangong station was completed. At present, the basic configuration of the Tiangong T-shaped station consists of the main compartment of Tianhe and two laboratory modules, Wentian and Mengtian docked, launched this year; The three objects together weigh about 69 tons. In December, Chinese astronauts performed the first crew rotation in orbit on a Chinese space station.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that China’s orbital station will become a “space home” for all humanity.

In October, China launched the Advanced Space Observatory (ASO-S) to study the sun. In total, as of December 29, China has conducted 63 space launches since the beginning of the year.