Airbnb asked to drop Olympic ties over China’s human-rights issues

Home-sharing business targeted due to claims of ‘social responsibility.’

Airbnb Inc. is being asked to drop its sponsorship connections to next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics by a coalition of 150 human-rights campaigners.

The coalition is headed by groups that oppose rights violations in China, including the detention of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.

Airbnb is one of the International Olympic Committee’s leading 15 sponsors. Included in the group are Coca-cola, Samsung, Visa, Toyota, Alibaba, Panasonic, Intel and Procter and Gamble.

Airbnb, the home-sharing business, is being targeted because of repeated claims about the “social responsibility” it practices in its business model.

The Associated Press received the open letter sent Tuesday to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. The letter argues that Airbnb is trying to drive tourism in China at the expense of Uyghurs and Tibetans who cannot travel freely in the country.

“Airbnb is also glossing over China’s horrifying human rights record and normalizing to the public what is recognized under international law as a deeply restrictive environment,” the letter said. “Airbnb should not be encouraging a wider tourist industry to be supported and allowed to flourish at the expense of Uyghur and Tibetan rights.”

The top 15 sponsors paid the IOC about $1 billion in cash or services during the last complete, four-year Olympic cycle to be associated with the games. Airbnb signed up in November 2019.

Rights groups are trying to pressure IOC sponsors and are pushing for a diplomatic boycott of the games — or even a hard boycott — to call attention to alleged abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans and residents of Hong Kong.

The Beijing Winter Olympics open on Feb. 4, 2022.

China says “political motives” underlie the boycott effort. The Chinese describe the detention camps in Xinjiang as vocational centers.

“China firmly rejects the politicization of sports and opposes using human rights issues to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said this month. He said an effort at a boycott “is doomed to failure.”

FUMINE TSUTABAYASHI/KYODO NEWS VIA AP Workers install flags Tuesday in preparation for the Olympic torch relay in Iwaki, Japan. The relay begins Thursday for the Summer Games, which were postponed from 2020. The Winter Games open Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing.