Beijing kicked off its Winter Olympics torch relay early on Wednesday, with Chinese basketball great and Olympian Yao Ming among the first to carry the flame on a journey that will last just three days due to Covid-19 curbs. The relay will carry the flame past landmarks including the Great Wall, and is far more modest than the globe-spanning event ahead of Beijing’s 2008 Summer Games that was disrupted by protests along the way. The February 4-20 Games are taking place inside a “closed loop” bubble that seals off athletes and other Olympics personnel from the public, and the events will only b…