Diplomatic Boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics
Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
Editor’s note: The name of the author of this article has been concealed due to concerns regarding the author’s safety during a trip. Please contact ehnewspaper@gmail.com if you have any questions.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics took place from February 4 to 20 and the Paralympics will be held from March 4 to 13.
In December, countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia announced a diplomatic boycott of the games in protest of human rights abuses by the Chinese government in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. While athletes went, no government officials or ministers were in attendance.
In response to the diplomatic boycott and accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stated in a press conference on December 7, 2021, that the “alleged” Uyghur Genocide does not exist and the treatment of Indigenous Americans in the United States is “the real genocide.”
Zhao also urged the United States to stop politicizing the Olympics. When asked whether China will boycott future Olympics hosted by the US, he said the US had “lifted stone and crushed its foot by destroying the foundation of co-operation between the two countries.”
On February 22, 2021, the Canadian House of Commons passed a motion that declared that the treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims is genocide by the People’s Republic of China with 266 to 0 votes.
The Ambassador of China to the United Kingdom denied human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority in Northwestern China after being shown footage of shaved and blindfolded people being escorted to trains in a BBC interview in 2021.
In 2018, the United Nations human rights panel stated that it had received credible reports that 1 million Uyghurs in China are held in “massive internment camp[s] that is shrouded in secrecy.”
Beijing implemented the National Security Law in Hong Kong in 2020, bypassing the local legislature, in response to the pro-democracy protests. Since then, lawmakers and activists were arrested for “subverting the state” while news outlets have been raided and shut down with their former seniors also arrested.
The law grants ambiguous powers to the governments and law enforcement bodies of both Hong Kong and China. Offenders could be sentenced to a maximum of life imprisonment for crimes of succession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.
Cases could be sent to mainland China for trial by a new Beijing-established security office in the territory, which has its own law enforcement personnel that is not under the local authority’s jurisdiction. Judges will be appointed by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong to hear national security cases. Court cases in Hong Kong have been opened to the public and journalists to attend, but cases related to the new law could be heard behind doors. This law applies to everyone including those outside of Hong Kong’s jurisdiction and non-residents.
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, a Dutch reporter was dragged away by security guards during a live broadcast. Game participants and journalists are confined to a “closed-loop” during the games as part of the COVID-19 measures.
Human rights activist groups, including Amnesty International and the Canada Tibet Committee, have shown support to the diplomatic boycott, stating that the decision “is a blow to the impunity of the Chinese Government.” The Uyghur Human Rights Project “hail[ed] the U.S. diplomatic boycott as a strong message that genocide will not be accepted by the international community.” Other groups stated that while the diplomatic boycott is a “positive step”, it is “not enough.”
A piece by the New York Times stated that the move by former US President George Bush to attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics gave legitimacy to the country which was engaging in crackdowns in Tibet and that the next step after a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 games should have been pulling out sponsors.
