Dharamshala, 23rd December: International sportsmen are being urged to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing the seriousness of escalating human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party. Activists representing these organizations wrote an open letter to athletes on Wednesday, urging them to boycott the games in solidarity with communities that have been recorded to be subjected to extreme repression by the Chinese government.
The letter also accuses the International Olympic Committee of complicity in China’s human rights violations, as well as athletes competing at the top level in their sport. It was signed by World Uyghur Congress activist Zumretay Arkin, We The Hongkongers campaigner Frances Hui, and Tibetan-Canadian activist Chemi Lhamo.
In 2015, China was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced new protocols in 2017 that are claimed to include increased human rights standards for “Future Host Questionnaires,” albeit they will only be implemented starting with the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Following movements by the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan to impose a diplomatic boycott in protest of China’s human rights record, the request for an athletic boycott has been made. However, the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan are backing their athletes attending the games.
The United States and other nations have placed penalties on Chinese officials and businesses for what it claims is Beijing’s genocide of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang area. Sanctions have also been levied on Chinese officials and entities for curtailing democratic freedoms in Hong Kong by the US and its allies.
Furthermore, human rights advocates are raising concerns that Chinese repression in Tibet is worsening, with a report released in early December claiming that three out of every four Tibetan children and youth are forcibly removed from their families and placed in Chinese schools where they are forbidden from speaking their native language or practicing their culture or religion, raising fears of cultural genocide.
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