On March 8, 2022, Ambassador Liu Yantao visited Mr. Kyriacos Kyriacou, a Cypriot referee who had received emergency medical treatment in Beijing while he was in Beijing for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

Ambassador Liu congratulated on Mr. Kyriacou's safe return to Cyprus, and asked about Mr. Kyriacou's current health condition, saying that the Chinese Embassy and the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee were both highly concerned about and attached great importance to Mr. Kyriacou's condition, and immediately coordinated and arranged a professional medical team for his treatment. Mr. Kyriacou spoke of his friendship with the medical staff during his hospitalization. Ambassador Liu said, this story fully reflected and witnessed the deep friendship between the Chinese people and the Cypriot people. Getting sick was a bad thing, but it turned out to be a blessing with a quick recovery after timely diagnosis and treatment. Ambassador Liu also asked Mr. Kyriacou what he had seen and heard during the Beijing Winter Olympics and talked about the development of China's ice and snow sports, saying that the Beijing Winter Olympics has engaged more than 300 million Chinese people in winter sports, which has greatly enhanced the spirits of the whole population for sports. The Beijing Winter Olympics not only carried forward the Olympic spirit, but also significantly promoted economic and social development. 

Mr. Kyriacou thanked Ambassador Liu for his visit, adding that the medical treatment he received in China was highly professional and efficient. He said that the medical staff were very friendly and he felt very lucky to receive treatment in China. He is still in touch with his new friends including his attending physician, and will write letters to all parties involved in the rescue, including the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, the Peking University Third Hospital, and the Chinese Embassy, to express his sincere gratitude. Mr. Kyriacou praised the Beijing Winter Olympics as a professional, wonderful and incredible event. He noted that he had discussions about the preparation process of the Winter Olympics with members from the organizing committee, and impressed by China's great input, hard work in preparations and materializing great ideas. It was impressive that some newly-built large-scale professional venues, both energy-saving and environmentally-friendly, were completed in just a few years. With rapid development in China's winter sports in recent years, he believed that the Beijing Winter Olympics would engage a huge number of Chinese people in ice and snow sports, effectively avoiding abandonment of post-Olympic venues happened in some host countries. 

Mr. Kyriacou was an alpine skiing referee at the Beijing Winter Olympics. He arrived in Beijing ahead of the Chinese New Year, but was rushed to the Yanqing Branch of Peking University Third Hospital (PUTH) due to abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea on the eve of the Chinese New Year. After a comprehensive and detailed examination and group consultation, the Yanqing Branch found that he had more serious and life-threatening symptoms such as hypovolemic shock and acute kidney injury. The PUTH immediately joined in the rescue through online guidance, and promptly transferred him to the PUTH headquarters. After five rounds of group consultation and treatment including anti-infection, renal replacement therapy and boost anti-shock, Mr. Kyriacou was successfully discharged from the hospital on the sixth day of his hospitalization.