Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, issued what amounted to a rare and surprising rebuke of a Chinese Olympic official during a news conference Friday.
His remarks came after Yan Jiarong, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Olympics, made comments at a news conference the previous day that seemed to violate Olympic rules about political neutrality.
“We were in touch with BOCOG immediately after this press conference,” Bach said, using the acronym for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, “and both organizations, BOCOG and the I.O.C., have restated the unequivocal commitment to remain politically neutral as it is required by the Olympic charter.