The Chinese atrocities of the minority Uyghur Muslims have raised international concerns for quite some time and the latest is focused on whether the world community should join next year winter Olympics or not.The UK House of Commons unanimously passed a motion on 15 July 2021 and called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. The motion stated that "this House believes that the 2022 Winter Olympic Games should not be hosted in a country credibly accused of mass atrocity crimes".
They asked the Government to decline invitations for its representatives to attend the event, unless the People's Republic of China ends the atrocities taking place in Uyghur inhabited, Xinjiang Province of China and further lift the sanctions imposed on U.K. parliamentarians, citizens and entities.The debate motion was led by Conservative MP Tim Loughton, a member of the cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), and received backing from all major opposition parties.
Tim Loughton MP, author of the motion, said: "The government on the one hand speaks of industrial scale human rights abuses taking place in the Uyghur Region, and on the other pursues ever deeper trade links with Beijing - even allowing our largest semiconductor manufacturer to be snapped up by a Chinese owned firm. It's time for the government to stop sending mixed messages to Beijing and to toughen up on its response to the Chinese government's abuses."
"Authoritarian regimes have a long and troubling history of using the Olympics to whitewash their crimes and spread their propaganda on a global scale. The Chinese Communist Party knows this and so far is getting away with it. It's up to Britain and democratic states across the world to send a clear message to Beijing: we will not turn a blind eye to the abuses in the Uyghur Region, Tibet and Hong Kong, and we will not let you score a major propaganda victory at the Winter Olympics."
Recently, the European Parliament also urged its member states to boycott Beijing Winter Olympics and passed a non-binding resolution calling for a diplomatic boycott. Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, had also earlier advocated a similar policy.
This year, on 26th March China announced it was imposing its own sanctions on nine UK citizens, including five MPs and two peers. The BBC reported that a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said China was forced to act "in self-defence" in response to UK Government's sanctions on four Chinese officials and an official body as "perpetrators of gross human rights violations taking place against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang".
This call for boycotting the Beijing Olympics began in 2020 when in September over 160 human rights advocacy groups delivered a joint letter to the International Olympics Committee, calling for it to reconsider its choice to award Beijing the 2022 Games in light of China's appalling human rights record.
While the motions are not legally binding, the actions demonstrate the growing concern among lawmakers in the West over China's alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the clampdown on Hong Kong. This follows a similar move by the European parliament last week.The debate in the U.K. was led by Tim Loughton, a Conservative member of parliament and one of several British lawmakers sanctioned by Beijing.He told Nikkei Asia: "We should not go along with anything that tries to normalize what's going on in China."
Following the debate, he commented:"It's up to Britain and democratic states across the world to send a clear message to Beijing: we will not turn a blind eye to the abuses in the Uyghur Region, Tibet and Hong Kong, and we will not let you score a major propaganda victory at the Winter Olympics."British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised: "I will certainly consider the proposals debated, but I must say that I am instinctively, and always have been, against sporting boycotts."
In April, the British parliament declared the treatment of Uyghur people in Xinjiang was a genocide. The declaration does not bind London to act, and the government has stated it is up to the courts to declare a genocide.China rejects the allegations of human rights abuses and denies actions in Xinjiang constitute genocide.
The European Commission, European Council and EU countries have been urged to "decline invitations to government representatives and diplomats to attend the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics unless the Chinese Government demonstrates a verifiable improvement in the human rights situation in Hong Kong, the Xinjiang Uyghur Region, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and elsewhere in China."
The moves are part of coordinated action in 11 parliaments by members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international cross-party group of legislators who are pushing for democratic countries to take a tougher stance on China. According to IPAC, the Czech senate passed a similar resolution in June.
While there are doubts whether a boycott would have any material impact on Chinese policy, it is proving to be another facet that demonstrates deteriorating relations between western democracies and China.In the U.S., some lawmakers have been calling for action from the government.Republican Sen. Mitt Romney retweeted the news that the European Parliament voted for diplomats to boycott the Games. "That's the right decision. The U.S. should follow suit," he tweeted.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a hearing on the Games in May that athletes could still compete in the Games but heads of states and royalty should not attend, according to CNBC. Pelosi accused companies who sponsor the games for looking "the other way on China's abuses" and questioned world leaders' "moral authority" if they are willing to attend the Games.
The Biden administration has said the U.S. is not discussing a potential boycott or any joint boycott with allies and partners.In Germany, a winter sport heavyweight and an important economic partner for China, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said: "No decision has been taken yet as to which member of the German government, if any, will attend the Winter Olympics in 2022."
Japan and France, hosts of the next two Summer Olympics, are absent from the list of countries where parliamentarians are pressuring for government action on the Beijing Olympics. It appears the Chinese government has been keen to link together reciprocal support for each other's Games.In April, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi that China will continue promoting cooperation with Japan and "support each other" in hosting the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
An official from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Nikkei Asia, "We decline to comment on the recent EU parliament's moves. Nothing has been decided about our response to the Beijing Olympics. We hope the Beijing Olympics will become the festival of peace in accordance with the ideals of the Olympics."
France will be hosting the 2024 Summer Games. Following a virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on July 5, Beijing's press release said the three countries should "preserve a true multilateralism," and "support each other in the organization of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Paris Summer Olympics."
The European Uyghur Institute, an organization representing Uyghurs in the region based in France, is also calling for a boycott. According to Agence France-Presse, members of the Uyghur and Tibetan communities demonstrated on June 26 in front of the Olympic Museum of Lausanne, Switzerland, to protest against the Winter Olympics. In February, more than 180 groups that support Tibet, Hong Kong, and the Uyghur community published an open letter calling for a boycott.
Ispeta Iqbal Priyanka is
Human Resource Officer at
the The Asian Age.
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