Daily Times

Enemies are kitting new nets of cold war strategies against China while it will be entering the Tiger Year on February 1, 2022, with traditional great celebrations. Here begins the Chinese New Year or the Lunar Year with great fervour and renewed hopes of peace and prosperity. Happy new year to all Chinese across the globe, and their friends and partners. Enjoy the celebrations and New Year vacations. All Pakistanis across the globe share all the happiness, joy and success with its ‘Iron Brother’. It is all set to celebrate the Tiger Year traditionally for 16 days under strict Covid-19 SOPs. Celebrations for the last two years were not the same. This might not be the high-end this year too. But we wish to see the same zeal and vigour, the fragrance of happiness and colours of joy in the festivities closing down with the Lantern Festival on February 15.

Chinese New Year is thought to date back to the 14th century BC when the Shang dynasty ruled. Its origins are steeped in legend. One story says that a monster named Nian (Year) attacked villagers at the start of every year. Nian was afraid of loud noises, bright lights and the red colour. People used these things to chase the beast away. Since the dragon is a Chinese symbol of power and good fortune, many areas of the country have dragon dancing, during which a long, colourful dragon puppet is paraded through the streets, as the highlight of festivities.

Chinese New Year is the time of celebration equal to Christmas or Eid. It is also the time when people clean their homes thoroughly to get rid of any bad luck left over from the old year. There are family banquets and outdoor spectacles featuring firecrackers, fireworks and often dancing dragons. Over 400 million people will travel across China – sometimes, thousands of miles – to celebrate with their families. People decorate their houses with red for good luck, and children are given money in bright red envelopes.

From Friday, the Beijing Winter Olympics torch will be lit to give a bright future to winter sports in China.

2022 will be the year of the Tiger. Tigers are courageous and active people who love a good challenge and adventure in life. Like their eponymous zodiac animal, people born in the years of the Tiger are vigorous and ambitious, daring and courageous, enthusiastic and generous, self-confident with a sense of justice and a commitment to help others for the greater good. The Tiger is the third of the 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. The zodiac also cycles through five inanimate elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water; so 2022 will specifically be the Year of the Metal Tiger.

The new Chinese year has to unfold many more challenges to confront by a very resilient nation – China. The brave nation has already been facing many unduly imposed situations. The US led a strong lobby of nations that has already assembled against the economic strength of China. But they are licking their wounds of defeat on many fronts. The economy of the US and its close aides have bowed down to their Covid-19 policies while China kept on advancing. The US strategic measures could not provoke countries against China except for some chaotic situations at the high altitude borders. The strong stance against Iran could not stop the country from having a strategic partnership signed with China. Iran is on the way to having Russia on its side.

From Friday, February 4, the Beijing Winter Olympics torch will be lit to give a bright future to winter sports in China. A new sector to engage the sporting people for global sports diplomacy. The US boycott will damage nothing of China but its credibility in the comity of winter sporting nations. Chinese sportspersons are not well-prepared for the winter Olympics, even though China is in high spirits.

Despite the different messaging around these Olympics, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said this week that he “doesn’t care,” how many gold medals China wins. Nevertheless, the country’s sporting authorities have still used every effort to make sure that they are as competitive as possible. China hopes to make significant progress based on home track advantage, which is hugely important in this sport.

President Xi Jinping has noted: “From the beginning to the end of the last year, the Chinese people have been hard at work in the fields, enterprises, communities, schools, hospitals, barracks and research institutes, among other places. Throughout the year, we have put in our efforts, contributed our part, and received much in return.”

Over time, we have seen and experienced a resilient and dynamic China, a country with its amicable and respectable people, a country developing rapidly with each passing day, and a country making continual progress in all its undertakings. All the Chinese would continue to do so across the globe.

The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached atdevcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed