The Beijing Winter Olympics were opened by Chinese President Xi Jinping during an opening ceremony with spectacular visual effects at the National Stadium. Xi, who along with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and everyone else was wearing a face mask, kicked off the Games until February 20 in which some 2,900 athletes from 91 countries are to compete for 109 gold medals. Beijing is the first city to stage Summer and Winter Olympics. The Games are taking place with a strict coronavirus protocol and amid political tensions, with many mainly western nations not sending governm…