A scene from the Beijing Yanqing venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 5, 2021.
A coalition of human rights organizations has called on democratic governments around the world to boycott the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as more and more evidence reveals that the Chinese Communist Party has committed genocide against the Uighur people of Xinjiang. U.S. Senate Republicans have also drafted a measure calling for the Winter Olympics to be held in other countries. But the Biden administration and Canada‘s approach has disappointed many.
Last Tuesday (2), a coalition of 150 human rights groups issued a public call for a worldwide boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to ensure that the Chinese Communist government’s appalling human rights abuses and crackdown on dissidents are not indulged.
“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to listen in 2008, justifying its decision by claiming that its decision would prove to be a catalyst for improving human rights.” “As predicted by human rights experts, the decision proved to be deeply wrong; not only did China’s human rights record not improve, for lack of any censure, its human rights violations increased dramatically,” the groups wrote in a statement.
According to Reuters, Hidetoshi Ishii, vice president of the Free Indo-Pacific Alliance, one of the groups in the coalition, emphasized that support from Washington would send a strong message that the Communist Party’s atrocities are unacceptable The support from Washington will send a strong message that the CCP’s atrocities are unacceptable.
Ishii said, “This is not something that only Japan can do, so we want the international community to act together, and we want the new Biden Administration to join us.”
As Reuters notes, however, there is no evidence that Biden would support such a boycott. White House press secretary Jen Psaki has made her refusal clear. She said last Wednesday that the Biden administration currently has no plans to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Canada has followed Biden’s lead and is preparing to send athletes to Beijing, and their Olympic committee has warned athletes in advance not to say anything “controversial” that might upset the Communist Party.
The Canadian Olympic Committee said its athletes should refrain from publicly criticizing the Chinese Communist Party ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing for fear that critics could be prosecuted for violating the Communist Party’s national security laws, The Globe and Mail reported on April 4.
David Shoemaker, CEO and secretary-general of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said the committee will spend “a fair amount of Time” guiding its participants on what not to comment on, perhaps until the Winter Games. They fear that a government that mistreats its own citizens could throw citizens of other countries in jail as well.
The Biden administration has not led the way in upholding democracy, and at this point it is not even clear if it will uphold the definition of genocide committed by the Chinese Communist Party. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said during Senate questioning that the State Department was “reviewing” the charge, leaving room for a definition.
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