On Friday, Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province were awarded the rights to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. This means Beijing will be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter events. While Beijing's abundant experience in hosting international events, economic clout and China's reputation in honoring its promises make the win a safe and convincing choice, on such a major decision for China, the West never hesitates to cast aspersions.

Some reports still question the lack of natural snow for the games in Beijing and Zhangjiakou. They believe that the need to manufacture all the snow will aggravate the drought-prone region's alarming water-shortages and therefore have environmental implications. Yet China's informative studies have laid out that the environmental impact will be small. Besides, site visits and comprehensive assessments by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have suggested no necessity for repeated doubts.

Human rights and political freedom are topics that the West always uses to downplay China's progress. Human rights activists' voices and attempts to dampen Beijing's bid have been widely reported to decrease Beijing's odds of winning and pressurize the IOC. However, China has elaborated its achievements in improving people's rights through multiple means and it is not credible to hype individual cases as being indicative of the country's overall situation. China's firmness in rapidly improving human rights will not be swayed by hosting an Olympic Games.

Beijing, after hosting the 2008 Summer Games, has a good Olympic legacy to be reused in 2022, so the budget will be under control and resources will not be wasted. The Winter Games will conspicuously bring profound and far-reaching influence to boosting Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration, the sports industrial economy and reform and opening-up.

It's true that China does not have a strong tradition of winter sports. Therefore the Winter Games is much-needed to attract the attention and participation of more Chinese people and improve the soft power of a country with a burgeoning economy.

All the prospective Western bidders pulled out, citing predominantly high costs and low public support. The Chinese government's plan of inspiring 300 million Chinese people to take up winter sports will contribute intensely to the development of global winter sports and to the international Olympic movement.

The IOC's award is recognition of China's capabilities to hold large events and we have every reason to believe that the 2022 Winter Games will be as "fantastic, extraordinary and excellent" as Chinese President Xi Jinping believes it will.