Imperial Valley Press

Rights groups call for boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Games

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TOKYO ( AP) — A coalition of 180 rights groups on Wednesday called for a boycott of next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics tied to reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in China.

The games are to open in one year, on Feb. 4, 2022, and are set to go forward despite the pandemic.

The coalition is composed of groups representi­ng Tibetans, Uighurs, Inner Mongolians, residents of Hong Kong and others.

The group has issued an open letter to government­s calling for a boycott of the Olympics “to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent.”

Rights groups have previously asked the IOC to move the games from China. Olympic leaders have largely ignored the demands and say it’s only a sporting body that does not get involved with politics.

The groups said because of the IOC’s inaction “it now falls on government­s to take a stand and demonstrat­e that they have the political will to push back against China’s reprehensi­ble human rights abuses.” Pro-Tibet activists held up their flags Wednesday outside the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee headquarte­rs in Lausanne, Switzerlan­d.

Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympics, which it promised would improve human rights in the country. Instead, the groups say the prestige of the Olympics has led to “a gross increase on the assault

on communitie­s living under its rule.”

The situation of the Uighurs in northweste­rn China has received most of the attention. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated on his first day in office that he believed genocide was being committed against Xinjiang’s ethnic minorities.

China has brushed off the criticisms as interferen­ce in its internal affairs and politiciza­tion of sports. It has reacted

strongly to charges of genocide. One Chinese official called it the “lie of the century.”

Since 2016, China has swept a million or more Uighurs and other predominan­tly Muslim minorities into prisons and indoctrina­tion camps that the state calls training centers, according to estimates by researcher­s and rights groups.

People have been subjected to torture, sterilizat­ion and political indoctrina

tion in addition to forced labor as part of an assimilati­on campaign, according to former residents and detainees, as well as experts and leaked government documents.

China at first denied the existence of the internment areas. It later acknowledg­ed them, but denied any abuses and says the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement.

 ?? Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP ?? Protesters hold Tibetan flags during a protest against Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics by activists of the Tibetan Youth Associatio­n in Europe, in front of the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee, IOC, headquarte­rs in Lausanne, Switzerlan­d, on Wednesday.
Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP Protesters hold Tibetan flags during a protest against Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics by activists of the Tibetan Youth Associatio­n in Europe, in front of the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee, IOC, headquarte­rs in Lausanne, Switzerlan­d, on Wednesday.

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