Some 180 groups issued a joint open letter on Wednesday (3) calling on global leaders to boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Chinese government has been criticized for human rights issues. Some 180 groups issued a joint open letter on Wednesday (3) calling on global leaders to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held on February 4, 2022.
The letter includes representatives of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Inner Mongolians and Hong Kong people, who had earlier asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to cancel Beijing’s right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, but no action was taken. The open letter said the IOC has done absolutely nothing despite ample evidence of ongoing genocide and deteriorating human rights conditions in Beijing, so “governments must now stand up and demonstrate their political will to confront China’s human rights abuses.”
AFP reported that the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), which participated in the joint open letter, and the International Tibet Network (ITN) said that after Beijing won the right to host the Winter Olympics in 2015, “Xi Jinping has launched an endless campaign of persecution against fundamental freedoms and human rights. The report also cited the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) report.
The report also cited the IOC’s response that the concerns raised by the groups, including human rights issues, “have also been raised by governments” and that “we will ensure that the principles of the Olympic Charter are respected and will continue to discuss event-related issues with the organizers.
More than 160 human rights groups and organizations also sent a joint letter to the IOC last year urging them to correct the “wrong decision” to grant Beijing the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. The letter said that China’s “Orwellian” surveillance and persecution of human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and, more recently, its destruction of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong, the eradication of Mongolian Culture and ongoing military intimidation of Taiwan, “will further damage the Olympic spirit and reputation if the worsening human rights crisis in all areas under China’s control is ignored, the IOC must recognize.”
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