2022 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony

The Games were opened by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China.

[2][3][4] The ceremony, directed by Zhang Yimou,[2] had the theme "Blossoming of Life"[6] and began at 20:00 CST (UTC+8) in the Beijing National Stadium.

[6] Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from participating after the countries' invasion of Ukraine.

[1] During the ceremony, Parsons did not mention Russia by name, but he publicly declared his horror at the fighting in Ukraine and called on world authorities to promote peace.

[12] Parsons's speech about how he was "horrified at what is taking place in the world right now", which implied the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, was not translated and muted by China Central Television (CCTV).