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WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is under escalating pressure to push for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, scheduled for Beijing next February, over China's rampant human rights abuses.
Human rights groups and some Republicans in Congress say a U.S.-led boycott would send a forceful signal to China, as well as other authoritarian countries, about America's commitment to democratic freedoms and President Joe Biden's willingness to confront Beijing over what his own advisers have called "genocide."
Others say the U.S. should not boycott the Olympics but want Biden to use America's clout to prod the International Olympic Committee to move the Games from China to another host country.
Either move would be fraught with controversy, mixing sports and geopolitics at a time when U.S.-China tensions are already high. Other countries, including Canada and Australia, are in the midst of a heated debate over whether to endorse a boycott.
Any decisions about a U.S. boycott would ultimately rest with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which has so far declined to publicly entertain the idea.
Opponents of a boycott say it will accomplish little to nothing – except to deprive star athletes the opportunity to showcase their prowess and to mar what should be a dazzling international spectacle.
Proponents, meanwhile, say Biden and other world leaders cannot turn a blind eye to China's human rights violations, and they worry that Beijing would use the Games as a stamp of international legitimacy to continue their campaign of repression.
"I can't imagine giving Beijing this global platform to whitewash everything that's going on," said Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and lead sponsor of a House resolution urging the U.S. to boycott the Games unless they are moved. "It's unethical, it's amoral, it's just disgusting what's happening."
'Concentration camps' in China
Much of the outcry is focused on China's treatment of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in China's Xinjiang region. Under President Xi Jinping's leadership, China has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in "re-education" and labor camps in northwestern China.
In explosive new revelations, the BBC reported last month that women in the camps have been subjected to systematic rape, sexual abuse and torture. Even before that story emerged, the Trump administration declared that China was committing "genocide" in its treatment of the Uyghur people. And the Biden administration concurred.
"Forcing men, women, and children into concentration camps, trying to in effect reeducate them to be adherents to the Chinese Communist Party – all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his January confirmation hearing.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, has blasted the idea of a boycott and dismissed accounts of Uyghur concentration camps as false.
"A handful of U.S. politicians are politicizing sports against the spirit of the Olympic Charter," Wang said on Feb. 4, according to a transcript of the news conference.
Like other Chinese officials, Wang asserted that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is "about terrorism and separatism, not about human rights." The genocide label, he added, "is the lie of the century concocted by extremely anti-China forces. It is a preposterous farce aiming to smear and vilify China."
But the issue is not going away.
Mounting pressure
On Feb. 3, a coalition of more than 180 human rights groups issued a public letter calling on world leaders to boycott the Games – or risk emboldening the Chinese government's "appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent."
In awarding Beijing the coveted Winter Games, some argued it would spur progress in China. Instead, "President Xi Jinping has unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on basic freedom and human rights," the human rights groups said.
The letter pointed to the Uyghur question, as well as China's crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and its iron grip on Tibet, where Xi has escalated a campaign to stamp out the region's identity and culture through "re-educational patriotism."
Human rights groups and some Republicans in Congress say a U.S.-led boycott would send a forceful signal to China, as well as other authoritarian countries, about America's commitment to democratic freedoms and President Joe Biden's willingness to confront Beijing over what his own advisers have called "genocide."
Others say the U.S. should not boycott the Olympics but want Biden to use America's clout to prod the International Olympic Committee to move the Games from China to another host country.
Either move would be fraught with controversy, mixing sports and geopolitics at a time when U.S.-China tensions are already high. Other countries, including Canada and Australia, are in the midst of a heated debate over whether to endorse a boycott.
Any decisions about a U.S. boycott would ultimately rest with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which has so far declined to publicly entertain the idea.
Opponents of a boycott say it will accomplish little to nothing – except to deprive star athletes the opportunity to showcase their prowess and to mar what should be a dazzling international spectacle.
Proponents, meanwhile, say Biden and other world leaders cannot turn a blind eye to China's human rights violations, and they worry that Beijing would use the Games as a stamp of international legitimacy to continue their campaign of repression.
"I can't imagine giving Beijing this global platform to whitewash everything that's going on," said Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and lead sponsor of a House resolution urging the U.S. to boycott the Games unless they are moved. "It's unethical, it's amoral, it's just disgusting what's happening."
'Concentration camps' in China
Much of the outcry is focused on China's treatment of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in China's Xinjiang region. Under President Xi Jinping's leadership, China has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in "re-education" and labor camps in northwestern China.
In explosive new revelations, the BBC reported last month that women in the camps have been subjected to systematic rape, sexual abuse and torture. Even before that story emerged, the Trump administration declared that China was committing "genocide" in its treatment of the Uyghur people. And the Biden administration concurred.
"Forcing men, women, and children into concentration camps, trying to in effect reeducate them to be adherents to the Chinese Communist Party – all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his January confirmation hearing.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, has blasted the idea of a boycott and dismissed accounts of Uyghur concentration camps as false.
"A handful of U.S. politicians are politicizing sports against the spirit of the Olympic Charter," Wang said on Feb. 4, according to a transcript of the news conference.
Like other Chinese officials, Wang asserted that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is "about terrorism and separatism, not about human rights." The genocide label, he added, "is the lie of the century concocted by extremely anti-China forces. It is a preposterous farce aiming to smear and vilify China."
But the issue is not going away.
Mounting pressure
On Feb. 3, a coalition of more than 180 human rights groups issued a public letter calling on world leaders to boycott the Games – or risk emboldening the Chinese government's "appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent."
In awarding Beijing the coveted Winter Games, some argued it would spur progress in China. Instead, "President Xi Jinping has unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on basic freedom and human rights," the human rights groups said.
The letter pointed to the Uyghur question, as well as China's crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and its iron grip on Tibet, where Xi has escalated a campaign to stamp out the region's identity and culture through "re-educational patriotism."
2022 Winter Olympics without the USA? Push to boycott grows over China's alleged human rights abuses
Human rights groups and some in Congress say a U.S.-led boycott would send a forceful signal to China about America's commitment to freedom.
www.usatoday.com
