China will use the Winter Olympics as ‘propaganda’, says 2008 Olympic torchbearer

The Winter Olympics was launched in Beijing today amidst a cloud of international tension and a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights abuses.

In a show of their growing cooperation, the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met ahead of the opening ceremony.

As they talked up their special relationship, the US warned China not to help Russia evade sanctions over Ukraine

We were joined by Kamalturk Yalqun, a Uyghur who carried the Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He now lives in exile in the US.

And from Nottingham, Professor Steve Tsang of the SOAS China Institute.