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More than 180 human rights organizations have called for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in protest against massive human rights abuses in China.
The coalition of groups, primarily regional associations in support of Tibet, Taiwan, the Uighur community and Hong Kong, said hopes in 2015 that awarding the Games to Beijing would be a catalyst for progress had faded.
“Since then … President Xi Jinping has unleashed a relentless crackdown on basic freedom and human rights,” the group said, calling on governments to boycott the event to ensure it was not used to “embolden” the government. Chinese, as they said in 2008. The Summer Olympics were over.
The open letter published this week read: “The IOC [ International Olympic Committee] he refused to listen in 2008, defending his decision with claims that they would be a catalyst for the improvement of human rights. As the human rights experts predicted, this decision turned out to be grossly wrong; Not only did China’s human rights record not improve, but violations rose substantially without reproach.
“Now, in 2021, we are again in the same position with the IOC, which refuses to act despite clear evidence of genocide and widespread and growing human rights failures.”
China is under increasing international pressure for its widely documented abuses and detentions of Uighurs and other Muslim ethnicities in Xinjiang, as well as its crackdown on dissent in the country and in Hong Kong, surveillance, and forced labor programs in Tibet. , the suppression of the language and culture in the interior. Mongolia and an aggressive stance towards Taiwan.
In recent years his government and senior officials have been subjected to various sanctions and multilateral declarations of condemnation, which have done little to change behavior.
But there appears to be little appetite from countries for a boycott, including the United States, which has formally declared that China’s abuses in Xinjiang amount to genocide.
“We are not currently talking about changing our stance or our plans when it comes to the Beijing Olympics,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee said it believed it was more effective for governments to directly engage China in human rights issues, and boycotts have been shown to “have been shown to negatively impact athletes without effectively addressing global problems ”.
When asked about the letter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular press conference that “all lovers of the Winter Games hope to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.” .
“We are fully confident that the Beijing Winter Olympics will be a splendid event. In the meantime, I must point out that it is highly irresponsible for some parties to try to disrupt, intervene and sabotage the preparation and holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics to serve their political interests, ”said Wang.
“Such actions will not be supported by the international community and will never be successful.”
It came about when Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the IOC of failing to act with due diligence by failing to conduct a human rights risk assessment.
“The IOC knows that the Chinese authorities are arbitrarily detaining Uighurs and other Muslims, expanding state surveillance and silencing many peaceful critics,” said Sophie Richardson, HRW China Director. “His inability to publicly confront Beijing’s grave human rights violations mocks his own commitments and claims that the Olympics are a ‘force for good.’
