Six weeks away from the Beijing Olympics, as the Chinese city of Xi’an was under total lockdown over a severe COVID outbreak, the region’s top official ordered authorities to double down on harsh containment measures—fearing that a spillover could affect the Games and harm the communist regime’s image. That’s according to an internal speech given by the governor of the north-central province of Shaanxi, whose capital is Xi’an, on Dec. 24, a transcript (pdf) of which was obtained by The Epoch Times. Noting the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early February, the province’s top official, Zhao Yide, said that a spread of the outbreak would “create chaos to the overall situation of the country, and smear the national image.” Zhao, in a virtual speech given to the region’s health officials, ordered that “the toughest measures” to be put in place to halt the transmission of the virus from …