The Winter Olympics in Beijing, already off to an awkward start thanks to a local guard’s widely reported mishandling of a Dutch reporter, took a controversial turn when a skier representing the persecuted Uyghur minority of western China took part in the flame-carrying ritual that marked the official opening of the Games on Friday. The 20-year-old skier, Dinigeer Yilamujiang, joined Chinese athlete Zhao Jiawen to deliver the flame during the opening of the Games, prompting speculation that the Chinese Communist Party might have sought to mitigate worldwide perceptions about the regime’s repression of the Uyghurs by featuring a Uyghur in such a prominent and symbolic role. The regime’s messaging was typified in a tweet sent out by Zhang Zisheng, China’s general consul in Zanzibar and Tanzania, who said, “Happy to see Ms Dinigeer Yilamujiang a Chinese Uyghur athlete lit the Olympic Cauldron with Zhao Jiawen! All the 56 Chinese ethnic groups are …