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New intentions to do the old boycott of the Olympic Games are starting to emerge; the difference is that, in this particular edition, the boycott is more than justified and noble. Pandemic scandals, China’s dirty games and its expansionist totalitarianism are overshadowing one of the world’s most important events to take place, so far, in Beijing.
180 organizations have called for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Games in protest of gross human rights violations and genocide perpetrated by Xi Jinping’s regime.
“The coalition of groups, mainly regional associations in support of Tibet, Taiwan, the Uyghur community and Hong Kong, said hopes in 2015 that awarding the Games to Beijing would be a catalyst for progress had faded,” The Guardian reported.
“Since then…,” the group explains, “President Xi Jinping has unleashed a relentless crackdown on basic freedoms and human rights.”
The NGO Human Rights Watch criticized the International Olympic Committee, stating that its “failure to publicly confront Beijing’s gross human rights violations makes a mockery of its own commitments and claims that the Olympics are a ‘force for good.'”
However, and perhaps most decisively, the White House stated that they have no plans to boycott the Winter Games in China, where, for some time now, a genocide of Uyghur Muslims and open persecution of any dissenters has been ongoing.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki commented, according to Reuters, that “we are not currently talking about changing our position or our plans regarding the Beijing Olympics.” She added that “of course” they are consulting with allies and partners at different levels to flesh out common concerns and establish a shared approach. Nonetheless, there is no current discussion concerning “plans” with China.
In addition, Psaki resolved to say that they believe the most effective course of action is for the world’s governments and China to engage directly on political and human rights issues.
An independent United Nations panel, Reuters reports, said in 2018 that it had received credible reports that at least one million Uyghurs and other Muslims had been detained in the region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. China describes them as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and denies allegations of abuse.
Allegations like this join hundreds more. For example, from El American we have previously reported the testimonies and denunciations of systematic rapes that occur in concentration camps for Uyghurs. Women who are detained by the authorities of the Chinese regime are often raped by two or three men at a time. On several occasions, electrified rods are even inserted into their vaginas.
The key thing is that, as Axios pointed out, even if the world’s democracies could organize a boycott, such a response would highlight the fundamental paradox that China’s global dominance is creating: either participate on China’s terms or retreat to create alternatives that will ultimately be lesser.
“While a full-blown boycott of Beijing 2022 seems unlikely, some Uyghur and Tibetan advocacy groups are joining together to urge a diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022,” Axios commented.
Apparently, the 2022 Olympics will be held in China, and this will reaffirm Joe Biden’s complicit dealings with the Communist Party, Beijing’s hegemony over the democracies, and denunciations that will likely have no effect.
Rafael Valera, Venezuelan, student of Political Science, political exile in São Paulo, Brazil since 2017 // Rafael Valera, venezolano, es estudiante de Ciencias Políticas y exiliado político en São Paulo, Brasil desde 2017