Several members of Congress have continued to call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics as a countermeasure to China’s human rights abuses. One lawmaker said that China’s bid to host the Olympics is not motivated by a love of sports, “but by a political cause. Some Republicans also argued that since the IOC has failed to respond to concerns, “it’s time to take tougher action.”
“After seeing what the Chinese Communist Party has done, I think it’s very unconscionable,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) of Florida at a roundtable discussion Thursday (April 15) on human rights in China.
“How can we offer the Chinese Communist Party a global stage, which is the Olympic sports competition, as a prize,” Rep. Waltz said, “and importantly, it would send a very strong message that the world is willing to turn a blind eye to these atrocities and allow the Communist Party to whitewash all this horrible of things to whitewash, and to me that’s very unconscionable.”
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), a Republican U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania, echoed Walz’s statement. He said at the meeting that if the U.S. ignores everything and continues to push for the Winter Olympics, then Beijing will only grow bolder and in turn make more aggressive moves.
“By doing nothing we are giving tacit approval to those actions (by China), or at least meaning we won’t do anything to oppose or stop the genocide that a hostile totalitarian regime like that is committing in western China,” Reschenthaler said.
Reschenthaler believes such a trend could even have an impact within the Chinese political arena. “Xi Jinping has done a lot of nasty things that will help him consolidate power within the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
Rep. Walz introduced a resolution in February calling on the International Olympic Committee to immediately move the location of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, saying the Biden administration should boycott the games if the venue is not changed as a response to the Chinese government’s human rights violations against Uighurs in Xinjiang. Reschenthaler is involved in cosponsoring the bill.
“We’ve been asking the IOC to move the games to another country so our athletes can compete,” Walz said. However, the legislator said their calls have been continually ignored by the IOC.
Waltz went on to emphasize, “I want to make it very clear that moving to another country is the better option, but so far, with only 11 months left, I think we need to take stronger action.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) was also present at Thursday’s roundtable discussion. As the first congressional Democrat to publicly voice support for moving the games to another country, Malinowski did not explicitly endorse an effort to fully boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, but he emphasized that the issue of defending human rights in Congress is one that knows no partisan boundaries.
“The Chinese government is not fighting for these Olympic games to be held in China simply because they love sports; it is clearly a political cause from the standpoint of the Chinese Communist Party. It would be naive of us to ignore that.”
Malinowski, who served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor from 2014 to 2017, also called at the conference that the U.S. should promote international cooperation to work together to pressure China on human rights issues.
“One thing that I have found from my diplomatic experience dealing with China is something that China takes quite seriously, and that is the unity of the United States and its allies on an issue. So relying only on the United States alone will not achieve the results we want,” Malinowski said.
In addition to bringing together lawmakers from both parties, Thursday’s event also featured former Speaker of Congress Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, for her part, recorded a video message of support for congressional efforts to promote a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Also at the meeting were a number of people from various human rights and democracy activist groups and members of non-governmental organizations.
Gingrich said he, too, believed in the 1990s that China was headed for modernization and democratization. “But over the last six to 10 years it has continually disappointed,” Gingrich said, adding that seeing everything Xi Jinping has done, he believes it is important for the U.S. to send a signal to China at this moment.
“If the Beijing dictator thinks the world doesn’t care, then we are sending an extremely dangerous signal that will probably lead to even more serious behavior in the future,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich further spoke of the key role that U.S. businesses play in addition to demanding government action.
I think it’s also important to communicate with the leaders of American business that you can’t tell us how worried you are about political correctness in the United States, but you kowtow to a dictator in Beijing,” he said.
Malinowski revealed that Congress is considering a bill that would primarily target U.S. businesses.
“I think we have to consider legislation that emphasizes the responsibility of corporate America to not succumb to the pressure of authoritarian regimes like China to censor. I hope we can work together in a bipartisan way,” Malinowski said.
The international boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics is gaining momentum, and Congress is gathering a high level of consensus on human rights concerns in China, but members are still divided on whether to boycott the games across the board.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a Republican U.S. senator from Utah, wrote in the New York Times last month that the Chinese Communist Party should be condemned, but that it is wrong to ban U.S. athletes from competing.
Romney argued that the United States should not ban American athletes from competing while meaningfully refuting and condemning Beijing’s atrocities. The correct answer is that the United States should boycott the Beijing Olympics on both an economic and diplomatic level.
American spectators, with the exception of the families of American athletes and coaches, should not travel to Beijing to watch the games. This would prevent the Chinese government from generating huge revenues from hotel stays, food and beverage spending and tickets for the American public to attend the games in Beijing.
In addition, Romney argued that U.S. businesses and companies, which typically entertain large numbers of customers and employees to watch the Beijing Olympics, should let them stay at their own venues and hotels in the United States.
Romney, who helped organize the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, also said that instead of sending diplomats or top officials to Beijing, the president should invite Chinese dissidents, religious leaders and ethnic minorities to the United States to watch the games.
At the same time, he said, NBC, which is broadcasting the games, should also be brought into the fold by not showing any of the opening and closing ceremonies, which allow for extreme patriotic elements, and instead broadcasting documented reports of human rights abuses in China.
A State Department spokesperson said last Tuesday (April 6) that the U.S. was seeking discussions with allies and partners for a coordinated approach on issues related to the Beijing Winter Olympics. But the next day, the U.S. government immediately retracted its statement that it was considering a joint boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, stressing only that its position on the Games had not changed.
The State Department told the media, “Our position on the 2022 Olympics has not changed. We have not discussed, and are not discussing, a joint boycott with our allies and partners.”
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