During the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV censored the remarks of Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), in which he denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said that he is “horrified at what is taking place in the world right now.” “Tonight I want—I must—begin with a message of peace,” Parsons said before athletes and spectators at Beijing’s Birds Nest stadium on March 4. “The 21st century is a time for dialogue and diplomacy, not war and hate.” CCTV first declined to translate portions of Parsons’s remarks dealing with Ukraine, and then muted his voice and scrubbed posts mentioning his comments from social media platform Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, the Wall Street Journal reported. The act of censorship was in line with other efforts by Beijing to suppress voices in support of Ukraine or critical of Russia’s attack. The …