An international coalition of 180 human rights organizations worldwide has called on world leaders to focus on China’s human rights record and boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
In an open letter issued Wednesday (Feb. 3), the international coalition said that since the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a relentless crackdown on fundamental freedoms and human rights, despite claims by the IOC and the Chinese Olympic Committee that the Games would be a catalyst for progress. The human rights situation in China has deteriorated dramatically.
Citing Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong as examples, the open letter cites the Chinese government’s political persecution of Tibetans and Uighurs and China’s roundup of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The letter says that more than 1,000 Tibetan political prisoners have faced torture and even death; between 1.8 million and 3 million Uighurs have been imprisoned in “reeducation-through-labor camps” and endured inhumane treatment and political brainwashing; and thousands of young people in Hong Kong have been arrested and imprisoned simply for expressing their political demands. In Inner Mongolia, the Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on cultural differences, and children are being denied the right to speak the Mongolian language.
The open letter notes that China’s sphere of influence extends to extreme intimidation and political bullying of Taiwan, as well as cross-border aggression and expansion in the South China Sea and along the Indo-Tibetan border, which poses a clear threat to regional and global security.
The open letter said that for 20 years, international human rights groups have repeatedly attempted to inform the IOC of these developments, to let them know that it would be dangerous to give China the right to host the Olympic Games, and to caution them against accepting any human rights guarantees from China, which is one of the worst violators of human rights.
The open letter accuses the IOC of refusing to act in the face of clear evidence of China’s “genocide and widespread and worsening human rights failures.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on January 19 that the Chinese government has committed Crimes Against Humanity and genocide against the Uighur people. Current U.S. Secretary of State John Blinken said last week that he agrees with former Secretary Pompeo’s definition of China’s actions against the Uighurs in Xinjiang as “genocide.
Exactly one year before the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics, the human rights groups said that because of the IOC’s inaction, “governments now need to take a stand and demonstrate their political will to counter China’s reprehensible human rights abuses.”
Reuters reported Wednesday that the IOC told Reuters that it has raised human rights concerns with the Chinese government. According to an IOC assessment document, Beijing gave “assurances” on rights, media freedom and Internet restrictions.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular press conference on Wednesday that the open letter from 180 human rights groups calling on leaders to boycott the Winter Olympics was “politically motivated” and “not supported by the international community and not destined to succeed.
Since last year, human rights groups, parliamentarians and officials from many countries have called for a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
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