More than 160 human rights groups recently sent a joint letter to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), calling on the IOC to “correct the error” in awarding the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing. IOC President Thomas Bach convened a meeting of the IOC’s Executive Board in Switzerland on Wednesday (Sept. 9).
The letter, released Tuesday, said: “The IOC must recognize that the Olympic spirit and the reputation of the Games will be further damaged if the worsening human rights crisis in all areas controlled by China is completely ignored.”
The joint letter is the largest coordinated effort to date. A few months earlier, a single human rights organization had made a similar appeal. At the same time, Beijing is facing a growing international backlash over some of its policies, including its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang and the newly implemented Hong Kong version of the National Security Law.
The letter argues that Beijing’s increased international prestige for hosting the 2008 Olympics has emboldened it to intensify its human rights persecution.
The letter states that after the 2008 Olympics, China established an “Orwellian surveillance network” in Tibet and detention camps in Xinjiang that imprisoned more than one million predominantly Muslim Uighurs.
The letter also cites other alleged human rights abuses from Hong Kong to Inner Mongolia, as well as intimidation of Taiwan. These include multiple recent actions in Hong Kong that violate international law, “one country, two systems,” and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights; simultaneous attempts to eradicate the Mongol culture and language, and continued military intimidation and geopolitical bullying of Taiwan; and the large number of Chinese human rights lawyers, feminists, democracy activists, and dissidents who have been arrested and detained by the U.S. government. Chinese Communist Party threats, detentions, disappearances, and deaths.
China has repeatedly denied international allegations about its human rights situation and accused other countries of interfering in its internal affairs. For example, China initially denied the existence of “internment camps” where Uighurs were being held, and later said that the camps served as vocational and technical training centers to combat terrorism and extremism.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it opposes attempts by some groups to politicize sporting events, rejecting calls by human rights groups for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reconsider Beijing’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Games. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a regular press conference that day. China considers its policies in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong to be key to maintaining national security and social stability.
Signatories to the letter include Uighur, Tibetan, Hong Kong, and Mongolian human rights organizations based in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, and Australia.
Last month, the World Uyghur Congress, a Uyghur human rights organization, made a similar appeal to the IOC regarding what it called crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
The IOC responded at the time that it would remain neutral on political issues and that it had received assurances from Chinese authorities that they would respect the principles of the Olympic Charter.
The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
It was U.S. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican, who first proposed a boycott of the 2022 Winter Games, writing to the IOC last fall asking that Beijing’s hosting rights be revoked.
Last December 19, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) and fellow Republican Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to the CEO of NBC Universal and to NBC Olympics, asking that the Games be cancelled. The President, urging them to put human rights above profit, refused to broadcast the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
In fact, the IOC has already taken a position on the international call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Games.
IOC President Bach warned against a boycott two months ago, although he said he was not referring to Beijing specifically, but to any Olympics in general. The IOC’s revenue comes mainly from top international sponsors, television rights contracts, and sponsorships from domestic sponsors. The sale of television rights accounts for 73% of the IOC’s revenue, and 18% of the IOC’s revenue comes from top international sponsors. The postponement of the Tokyo 2000 Olympic Games due to the neo-coronavirus epidemic affected the finances of the IOC, 200 National Olympic Committees, and dozens of Olympic-related sports federations.
After the withdrawal of European cities such as Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden, the IOC was left with only two bids for 2022: Beijing, China, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, which had four bids to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing won by four votes in 2015, bringing the Winter Olympics to a market that was seen as untraditional, but one that was large and untapped.
Lee Jones, who studies Asian politics at Queen Mary University Of London, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that a boycott is unlikely to change China’s behavior, but that China may act more negatively if it sees its reputation tarnished, especially in Muslim-dominated countries, and if foreign governments begin to lead boycotts.
The 2022 Winter Olympics events are being held in Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province. According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, all 13 construction projects for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Yanqing are on schedule to be completed by the end of the year. The Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place from February 4 to 20, 2022.
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