With 100 days until the Winter Olympics, Beijing races to control growing Covid outbreak
 Wednesday marks the start of the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Winter Olympics, but not everyone is in the mood to celebrate, as officials instead race to suppress a widening outbreak of Covid-19.
Come February, the Chinese capital will become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics — which is seen as a major point of pride for China. But it also faces ample challenges.
In addition to growing calls for a boycott over China's crackdown on Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, the Winter Games also risk being overshadowed by the pandemic — and China's uncompromising zero-Covid policy.
In 2008, the 100-day countdown to the Summer Games was marked by an anticipatory buzz across the capital — with music performances, a big marathon relay around the Olympic Green and even church prayers.
This time around, it appears to be a much more muted affair, with much of the city bunkering down amid a new wave of coronavirus infections.
Since October 17, China has recorded more than 200 local infections in about a dozen provinces and municipalities — and health officials have warned that the outbreak will likely worsen in the coming days.
By international standards the current outbreak would be considered comparatively small, but in China, even one case represents a challenge to the country's zero-Covid approach, which necessitates the total elimination of the virus. As a result, China's borders remain tightly sealed, with stringent and lengthy quarantine measures in place for all international arrivals.
The Winter Games will pose the biggest test yet of China's Covid control measures, with thousands of international athletes and other participants set to arrive in Beijing.
Chinese organizers have come up with a solution to hold the Games in a bubble around Beijing, which will cover all stadiums and competition venues, as well as accommodation, catering, and the opening and closing ceremonies.
Athletes and other participants who are fully vaccinated will be allowed to enter the bubble without quarantine. Those who are not fully vaccinated, meanwhile, will have to spend 21 days in quarantine upon arrival. And throughout the Games, they will be required to stay within the bubble, hence avoiding any contact with local residents.
The Chinese capital has always been a top priority in the country's zero-Covid policy. Most international flights arriving in China land not in Beijing, but in cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
And now, amid the widening outbreak, Beijing has tightened entry restrictions for domestic travelers too.
Last week, flights to the capital from Chinese cities with known infections were canceled. And beginning this week, officials banned entry for people who had visited localities with infections within the past 14 days — even if they are Beijing residents who want to return home. Other domestic travelers are required to present a negative coronavirus test and undergo 14 days of health monitoring.
The city also suspended its annual marathon, originally scheduled for October 31, while the arrival of the Olympic flame last week was marked with a low-key ceremony attended by a small audience.
On Tuesday, some residents posed for photos in front of a countdown board for the Winter Olympics in the city's main shopping street; Beijing organizers marked the 100-day countdown by unveiling the medals for the Games.
Elsewhere in China, the Covid response has been even more aggressive.
In northwestern Gansu province, authorities locked down Lanzhou, the provincial capital with a population of 4 million, after it reported six cases on Tuesday. (The city reported a total of 39 cases over the past week.) Residents were told not to leave home except for seeking essential supplies or medical treatment, tourists were forbidden from leaving the city, while bus and taxi services had already been suspended.
In Ejin Banner, a city of 35,000 people in Inner Mongolia and a popular tourist destination, all residents and tourists were ordered to stay in their homes or hotel rooms starting Monday. The city also sacked its Communist Party chief and punished six other officials, including the director of the local health commission, for their failure to curb the latest outbreak (the city has reported a total of 89 cases).
While a growing list of countries are switching to a new approach of living with the virus, China has doubled down on its model of zero-tolerance, with voices advocating for a shift of approach criticized, silenced or even punished.
"It's a dilemma. If they open up now, you will see a rapid increase in Covid cases. People are used to zero infections so they might question the wisdom of a policy shift," said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council for Foreign Relations.
While the zero-Covid strategy remains broadly popular among the Chinese public, there are growing signs that some residents are fed up with the lockdowns.
Last week, police in Beijing detained two residents for trying to climb over the fences of their locked-down gated community — a rare breach of Covid restrictions among the largely compliant Chinese public.
On Tuesday, Beijing police said another resident in the same gated community had been arrested for allegedly beating up a community worker while seeking to leave the compound via a parking garage.
In Ruili, a city on China's border with Myanmar, residents have taken to social media to complain about the extended, stringent lockdowns that have derailed their lives. The city relies heavily on border trade and tourism and has faced recurring outbreaks since March, leaving many families with no income, according to the posts — some of which have been censored.
Huang said after the Beijing Winter Games, there will be a "window of opportunity" for China to shift its pandemic policy.
But the ruling Communist Party is also due to hold its 20th National Congress later in the year — when the country's leader Xi Jinping is expected to seek a third term in power — and would aim to ensure social and political stability at all cost, Huang said.
"To ensure a smooth transition of the leadership, that policy might be sustained through late next year," he added.  Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International based in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.  Steve George is Senior Editor for CNN International in Hong Kong. He oversees coverage from across the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on China.  China has laid out new measures on how it will achieve carbon zero in a new cabinet document, published less than a week before world leaders gather in Glasgow for the COP26 climate talks.
The document, published in state media Sunday, did not update its pledge to reduce emissions, but sheds more light on how Chinese President Xi Jinping intends to make good on previous pledges to reach peak emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Carbon neutrality, or net zero emissions, is achieved when as much greenhouse gas is removed from the atmosphere as what's emitted, so the net amount added is zero.
Xi hasn't left China since the pandemic began and is highly unlikely to attend COP26 in person. The government has yet to announce details of its delegation to the summit, or whether Xi will address the summit through virtual means or otherwise.
The new guidelines said China will gradually phase out its fossil fuel consumption, so that by the end of the decade, 25% of the country's energy will come from non-fossil fuel sources. That figure is expected to rise to 80% by 2060.
Also by 2030, China aims to have its total installed capacity of wind and solar power reach more than 1,200 gigawatts, Xinhua said.
But whether China can achieve its climate pledges has come under scrutiny in recent months, with the country powering its coronavirus economic recovery by building dozens of new coal plants and accelerating construction projects reliant on fossil fuels.
And amid the ongoing energy crisis, China has recently ramped up coal production; last week, the Chinese government ordered the country's coal mines to "produce as much coal as possible" after weeks of power shortages across many provinces.  Jessie Yeung is a Digital Producer for CNN International in Hong Kong. She writes breaking news and features about the Asia-Pacific region.  Olympic medals Organizers unveiled the medals for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games on Tuesday, marking 100 days to go until the Games begin in February. The medals, named "Tong Xin," or "together as one," have five rings and a center. Patterns of ice, snow and cloud are engraved around the rings, with the Olympic logo engraved in the center.  Beijing is making one thing clear to the country's embattled property developers: Pay your debts. All of them.
Two major economic and finance agencies on Tuesday called on companies in "key industries" to redeem the principal and interest on their overseas bonds, according to a government statement. The National Development and Reform Commission — the country's top economic planner — and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange did not specify which companies they spoke with during Tuesday's meeting.
But the timing is notable: Just days ago, property giant Evergrande finally paid $83.5 million worth of overdue interest on a dollar-denominated bond that was due last month, just as a 30-day grace period was about to expire. (Evergrande never commented publicly on the payment, but it was reported in Chinese state media.)
The Evergrande payment suggested that the developer was finally starting to care about meeting its debt obligations with overseas bondholders.
Previously, the company had stayed silent on a slew of missed interest payments on dollar-denominated bonds — the only payment it publicly commented on was interest on a yuan bond. Evergrande has also stressed the importance of finishing housing projects in mainland China, a sign that it wants to prioritize its commitments to Chinese home buyers.
Meanwhile, the Beijing-based developer Modern Land said Tuesday that it had failed to pay either the principal or interest on a $250 million bond that was due October 25.
Before Tuesday, Beijing also was not exactly expressing concerns about whether Evergrande and other developers were missing payments on offshore debts. At a financial forum in Beijing last week, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He stressed that risks were generally under control, despite what he called "individual problems" in the property market.
But the government statement Tuesday may indicate that Beijing understands that any market fallout from Evergrande needs to be limited. The agencies said that they want companies to settle foreign debt to protect those firms' reputations, as well as the "overall order of the market." When Evergrande first warned last month that it could default, stocks in Hong Kong, New York and other major markets were rattled by fears of a possible contagion.  Laura He is a reporter and digital producer for CNN Business. She covers news about Asian business and markets from Hong Kong. Around Asia
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