Dharmashala, 29th October: With 100 days until the Winter Olympics begin, Beijing promises an “easy and safe” 2022 Games, despite the fact that preparations are far from simple as China prepares to host thousands of athletes and personnel while battling COVID-19 flare-ups.
Beijing will be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, but the 2022 event will be overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and calls for a boycott over China’s treatment of Tibet, Uyghur Muslims, and Hong Kong from human rights groups.
Rights activists(Chemi Lhamo and etc.) unfurled a banner reading “No Genocide Games” and waved a Tibetan flag during the torch-lighting ceremony in Athens earlier this month. Human rights organizations and several US senators have urged the International Olympic Committee to postpone and move the Winter Games until China stops what the US considers to be ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities.
Activists and United Nations rights experts estimate that at least 1 million Muslims have been incarcerated in Xinjiang facilities since 2017. Beijing disputes any allegations of Uyghur torture and characterizes the camps as vocational training centers aimed at combating religious extremism. While no country has declared that its athletes will boycott the Games, European, British, and American legislators have all voted to have their diplomats do so.
Last week, Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter’s identity seemed to be barred on China’s social media platform Weibo, and his team’s highlights were removed from a domestic sports platform after he released videos criticizing China’s human rights record.