The letter, addressed to IOC President Thomas Bach, and signed by human rights organizations on each continent, said the country’s central government action in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Inner Mongolia was inappropriate to organize the country fox. Olympics.
The letter said, “The IOC’s reputation was haphazardly tarnished by the misconception that the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics would work to improve China’s human rights record. In fact, the host of the Olympic Games only promotes Chinese government action.”
“We urge the committee to reverse its past mistakes and urgently demonstrate that there is a political will to adhere to the basic principles of the Olympic Charter on ‘human dignity’. The IOC should not be allowed to jeopardize its moral authority again.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that the letter was an attempt to “politicize” the games, a move China “strongly opposes.”
CNN has reached out to the IOC to comment on the letter. In a statement to Reuters, the IOC said it has remained neutral on political issues, and that awarding the Olympic Games does not mean the IOC agrees with the political structure, social circumstances or human rights standards in its country. “
The IOC said in 2017 that it would add clauses on human rights, anti-corruption and sustainable development to future Olympic host city agreements, starting with the 2024 Summer Games.
The boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics has become increasingly mainstream, with U.S. Democratic presidential candidates have asked whether the U.S. should send a team to the upcoming Games during the debate in December 2019.
Former Vice President and 2020 U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden did not answer the question.
Olympic reputation
China hosted the first Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, which many saw as the country’s arrival on the world stage as an economy and an ambitious superpower.
Despite concerns surrounding the country’s human rights record, including that of then US President George W. Bush, the ruling Chinese Communist Party put in a lot of money and effort to ensure the Games were a success.
Yakiyu Wang, a Chinese researcher with Human Rights Watch, said it was a “huge honor” for the Chinese government to hold a prestige event like the Olympics. “(2008 Olympics) gave them a way to legalize human rights abuses. It’s like a reputation laundry for Beijing.” Human Rights Watch did not sign a letter calling for the 2022 Games to be stripped from Beijing.
In 2015, Beijing was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics, meaning it is poised to become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games. After leaving Oslo, Munich and Stockholm, only Beijing and Kazakhstan’s Almaty were in the running for the 2022 Games.
Asked about concerns about human rights issues in both China and Kazakhstan at the time, IOC President Bush told CNN that the IOC’s role was to “ensure that the Olympic Charter applies during the Games, and for all participants.”
“It means tolerance, dialogue to understand (and) no discrimination,” he said.
But since 2015, particularly in the wake of the mass detention of Muslim citizens in Xinjiang and the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong, the Chinese government has faced growing criticism over allegations of human rights violations.
U.S. As many as 2 million Muslim minorities in the western Xinjiang region have been detained in a massive re-training facility, according to the State Department. Reports of abuse, infant mortality and mass birth control camps have surfaced.
The Chinese government has defended its policy as a de-radicalization program in Xinjiang, saying the camps are “vocational training centers” where Muslim minorities can voluntarily learn life skills and the Chinese language.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the Chinese government enacted a new national security law in June, which activists say will lead to pro-democracy protests in the city by 2019, severely curtailing freedom of speech and other human rights.
Opposition lawmakers and businessmen critical of Beijing have already been arrested in Hong Kong following the implementation of the new law. The Hong Kong government and Chinese authorities have defended the law, saying it has stabilized the city.
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