Calls in the U.S. Congress for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing have escalated again. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has publicly called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics and not to send officials to the games. In the same breath, lawmakers from both parties shouted at the International Olympic Committee, saying the Winter Olympics should be moved to another city or the U.S. should boycott them. Republicans also took aim at U.S. companies, arguing that they should not sponsor the “Genocide Olympics” for commercial gain.
A bipartisan group of members of both houses of Congress, the Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights and the U.S. Congress and the U.S. House of Representatives, have been working together to promote the Olympics. The Lantos Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Congress and Administration’s China Committee held a hearing Tuesday (May 18) focused on China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics in February.
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Tom. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the Lantos Commission on Human Rights, chaired a hearing on May 18, 2021, focusing on human rights issues in Xinjiang, China.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the Commission, said at the hearing that for Xi Jinping, the Olympics were never about athletic competition among athletes, but about power.
Rep. Smith, a Republican U.S. Representative from New Jersey, said, “When the IOC decided to authorize China to host the Olympics in 2015, whatever written commitments the Chinese government had made to the IOC regarding respect for human rights, it is now absolutely clear that China never intended to honor those commitments.”
Moving to another location
Smith has long been concerned about human rights in China and has held 71 hearings in Congress on a variety of Chinese human rights issues. He mentioned at Tuesday’s hearing that the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide makes it clear that a government that commits genocide should be ‘punished,’ and that what the U.S. should be doing now is harshly condemning, not crowning, what China is doing in Xinjiang.
“By authorizing Beijing to host the Olympics, we’re putting a crown on a barbaric regime when what we should be doing is condemning them for their abuses and genocide,” Smith said.
He went on to say, “We need to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, not the oppressors; with the victims, not the persecutors, and I call on the IOC and all relevant stakeholders, including the U.S., should have to find a new host city, or else there should be a boycott.”
Tom. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) of Massachusetts, another co-chair of the Lantos Human Rights Commission, said at the meeting that there is ample evidence that the human rights violations committed by China throughout its territory are a clear fact and a reality.
He made a call for the IOC to delay the 2022 Winter Olympics and find a new host city, as it did for the Tokyo Games last year.
“The decision to postpone Tokyo 2020 was announced four months before the games, and if we can postpone the Olympics for a year because of a pandemic, then we can certainly postpone the Olympics for a year because of genocide, which would give the IOC time to change the host country, a country where no atrocities have been committed,” McGovern said.
McGovern stressed that holding the games as if it were business as usual is unacceptable and would send a serious false signal.
“Business as usual would send a terrible signal to all those who strive to exercise universal human rights and live in peace and dignity; business as usual would require us to abandon our moral authority and confront the world’s other atrocity governments; business as usual would leave an indelible stain on the Olympic movement and celebrate all of this in the midst of crimes against humanity, “I’m sorry,” McGovern said.
Less than nine months remain before Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics in 2022. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in Congress have repeatedly called on the U.S. Olympic Committee and the IOC to move the Winter Games to other cities, though they have not received a positive response.
Business boycott
Smith took aim at both the IOC, the U.S. Olympic Committee and corporate America at the meeting. “Despite an outrageous record that includes genocide, we have seen the IOC, the U.S. Olympic Committee and numerous large sponsors affirm the decision to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing,” Smith said, expressing his extreme displeasure.
Smith said, “Big companies want to make a lot of money and it doesn’t seem to matter how cruel the host country is, or even commit genocide.”
Smith argued that corporate America must meet its obligations and called for a “business boycott” to be promoted. “Our big corporations, please don’t participate in or sponsor the ‘Genocide Olympics,'” Smith urged.
Smith mentioned that the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission has a mandate to report to the IOC. The Lantos Human Rights Commission has offered an invitation to the IOC to testify at Tuesday’s hearing, but has not received a response. They also made the same request to the U.S. Olympic Committee, but the U.S. Olympic Committee responded only with a written statement.
Smith, who presided over Tuesday’s hearing, said the sponsoring companies should be allowed to come to Congress to testify and be held accountable.
Diplomatic boycott
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joins a bipartisan hearing on human rights in China and the Beijing Winter Olympics via video link. (May 18, 2021)
House Speaker Pelosi joins a bipartisan hearing on human rights in China and the Beijing Winter Olympics via video link. (May 18, 2021)
At Tuesday’s hearing, House Speaker Pelosi, who has repeatedly spoken out strongly in support of human rights issues in Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, also testified. Pelosi said it is unacceptable to remain silent about ongoing human rights abuses such as genocide in China.
She also publicly called for the first time for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in the United States.
“What I’m suggesting – and joining those who are suggesting it – is a diplomatic boycott. I don’t know if that’s possible because we haven’t succeeded in the past,” Pelosi said at the hearing, “and it’s so proud to see the hard work, dedication and commitment that our young athletes have shown, let’s honor them here at home in the United States. Let’s not give the Chinese government credit by having the head of state go to China.”
“Considering the genocide that is taking place, if the head of state goes to China and you’re sitting in your seat and a genocide is taking place, then the question really must be asked: what moral authority do you have to speak next time about human rights anywhere in the world?” Pelosi said.
The proposed diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics is not the first time Congress has proposed it. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a Republican from Utah, wrote an article in March calling for a diplomatic boycott to protest human rights violations by the Chinese government.
In the article, Romney, who served as chairman and executive director of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, argued that the United States should not ban American athletes from the games while meaningfully refuting and condemning Beijing’s atrocities. The correct answer is that the U.S. should boycott the Beijing Olympics on an economic and diplomatic level, thereby reducing the gains it can make during the Games, and blocking the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda content that exposes their human rights atrocities.
The Long-Term Battle Between Democracy and Dictatorship
Reggie Littlejohn, founder of the U.S. human rights organization Feminism Without Frontiers, testified at Tuesday’s hearing, comparing the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
“Today, we are dealing with another totalitarian regime that is actively committing another genocide,” Reggie said at the hearing, “and we must not repeat the mistake of allowing a genocidal regime to take pride in hosting the world’s most prestigious international event.”
Dr. Jianli Yang, founder of Citizen Power, also called at the hearing for the United States and democratic allies to be united and clear in their opposition to Beijing holding next year’s Winter Olympics. He emphasized that the fight against China on human rights is a long-term one.
“Whatever action we take, it may not change the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party in the short term. But this is not a game that will happen overnight. It is a long and difficult battle between democracy and dictatorship,” Yang said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has followed human rights issues in China for 30 years, also said the push for human rights is a long road.
“The role (of advancing) human rights is long-term, you have to be patient, and you also have to be persistent,” Pelosi said.
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