The focus of the world is on Beijing as athletes and their entourages congregate in Beijing ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony on February 4. From around the world there are calls for a boycott of the Games, saying that awarding the Games to the Olympics is against everything the Olympics stands for; many western countries have announced a diplomatic boycott but the Games are going ahead.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) have warned against “sportswashing” saying, “The Olympics and the World Cup each have audiences of more than 3 billion people worldwide — almost half the global population — which is why China and Qatar so badly want to refashion their images as glamorous sporting hosts in good standing in the world. And why they are effectively “sportswashing” their abysmal human rights records.”
HRW continues, “The International Olympic Committee (IOC) failed to punish Chinese leaders for breaking their empty Olympic promises of 2008 — and in 2015 awarded Beijing the 2022 Winter Games. Since then, President Xi Jinping’s government has arrested journalists, women’s rights activists and lawyers; dismantled freedoms in Hong Kong; and committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, torture, sexual abuse and cultural persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. Crimes against humanity are among the gravest human rights abuses under international law, making the Chinese government the wrong host for an event the IOC claims will ‘celebrate humanity’. The IOC has uttered not a word about these abuses.”
There is concern for athletes who choose to speak out, as the Tibet Express points out, “Human Rights activists have warned athletes at the Beijing Olympics that they risk being prosecuted if they criticise China.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has declared “athletes will have freedom of speech when speaking to journalists or posting on social media”, but athletes at a briefing hosted by HRW have been warned that the IOC has not publicly committed as to how athletes who speak out would be protected, and that athletes risk being charged for provoking trouble or inciting subversion.
Amnesty International says the international community must avoid being “complicit in a propaganda exercise”. Amnesty’s China researcher, Alkan Akad, said: “The world must heed the lessons of the Beijing 2008 Games, when Chinese government promises of human rights improvements never materialised”.
No spectator tickets will be sold to the public – China is using the Covid pandemic as a reason to prevent local Chinese people from attending the Games; the UK Glasgow Times has commented, “Beijing will take things to a whole new level, by effectively sealing off the event from the Chinese populace in order to evade any chance of spreading the Omicron variant” and that the Games will take place “in front of empty grandstands bar a bunch of hazmat-besuited officials, its stars careering over finish lines in near silence, nostrils raw from rigorously enforced daily testing procedures.” The article mentions shovelling “millions of cubic tons of artificial snow onto the pistes of Zhangjikou” and reports an admission from “a member of the Beijing organising committee that athletes could face ‘punishment’ for speaking out”.
The BBC has commented that “The organisers will spray about 1.2 million cubic metres of artificial snow onto competition sites because so little falls in the region. China has been criticised over the environmental impact of this process.”
Aljazeera also warns of the dangers of speaking out by quoting a “Beijing official” as saying, “Behaviour by athletes that violates the ‘Olympic spirit’ or Chinese rules could be subject to punishment”, in response to rights groups’ concerns.
The IOC has made it clear that athletes are free to express their opinions on any matter in news conferences and interviews within the Olympic bubble, as long as it is not during competition or medal ceremonies.
Rob Koehler, Director General of the Global Athlete group, said “There’s really not much protection that we believe is going to be afforded to athletes […] So we’re advising athletes not to speak up. We want them to compete and use their voice when they get home.”
Reuters reports, “Advertisers lie low ahead of Beijing Winter Games”, saying, “Unlike any Games in recent memory, the nearly 20 official international and national Olympic sponsors have laid low, ducking the press and […] holding back on the advertising blitz that typically kicks off months ahead”, and that “Corporate sponsors and advertisers […] have come under fire for what human rights groups say is the enabling of China’s alleged abuses.” They report a major advertiser as saying their “clients decided to strip from their campaigns mentions of traditional Olympic shortly themes […] after the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott”.
The No Beijing 22 campaign has been spearheading the international calls for a boycott. Their website includes a map of protests taking place around the world and a global “Day of Action toolkit” with practical advice and resources for organising a demonstration. Their message “The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is set to happen amid one of the world’s worst crackdowns against freedom, democracy, and human rights” is backed up with information and reports from around the world.
And in Tibet there are reports of heightened security with large numbers of police deployed in Lhasa and restrictions imposed in other areas on Tibetans’ movements, says Radio Free Asia, citing local sources; visitors to Lhasa are being “closely questioned”, and in some areas “household inspections” are taking place, searching for hidden pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
UN chief under fire
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has come under fire for accepting his invitation to Beijing; Phayul reports that over 250 right groups have written to him saying his acceptance is “highly inappropriate” and that it “grossly undermined the UN’s commitment to human rights”. The coalition includes global civil society groups representing Tibetan, Uyghur, Hong Konger, Chinese, Southern Mongolian and Taiwanese communities. The letter continues, “Your participation would […] go against the core principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights […] your attendance will be seen as credence to China’s blatant disregard for international human rights laws”.
Guterres has called “on everyone to observe the Olympic Truce during the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The Olympic Truce calls on all parties to stop hostilities throughout the course of the Games.”The Olympic Truce came into force from January 28. In his Lunar New Year message on January 28 Guterres thanked China and the Chinese people for their “commitment to multilateralism and to the United Nations”, adding, “Soon, I will attend the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Olympic spirit shines as a beacon to human solidarity and I look forward to safe and successful Games.”
Tibetan athletes participate
Photo: China Daily
Three Tibetan athletes are to compete in the Games, together with five competitors from East Turkestan [Ch: Xinjiang], one of them from the ethnic minority Uyghur population. The official Chinese media outlet chinadaily.com.cn has quoted Yangjin Lhamo, 18, a Tibetan ski competitor, as saying, “I will try my best in the competition to win glory for my country.” Ciren Zhandui, 18, is another Tibetan competitor, the third has not been named.
Students for a Free Tibet plea to athletes
Students for a Free Tibet,the Tibetan organisation campaigning for freedom for Tibetans, has written an open letter to athletes, “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is responsible for some of the worst human rights atrocities of our generation […]the IOC has failed us, and failed you. […] Many of the high school and college students who are writing this letter are not so different from you. […] We may have sat next to you in history class, or we might have worked together on a science project”. The letter continues, “we understand how hard you have worked” and “we are proud of you”, and then says “our voices have been silenced by some of the world’s most powerful forces […] We are therefore asking you to stand in solidarity with us and our communities – some of the most highly oppressed peoples in the world today. We are asking you to take a stand against the Genocide Games”.
Broadcasting
In the UK, John Nicholson, a Scottish MP has added his voice and written to Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC, saying, “The Olympic Games ethos is in danger of being undermined by China’s behaviour. Beijing is currently committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, enforcing harsh crackdowns on human rights in Hong Kong, and continuing its brutal, decades long persecution of occupied Tibet … I believe that the BBC should not permit the Chinese state to sports wash these Olympics”.
At a demonstration on January 29 in Boston, US, a coalition of Boston-based human rights organisations called on NBC to drop their broadcasting deal and urged the public to boycott NBC’s broadcast and not to watch the Games. The group has been trying unsuccessfully to engage NBC-Boston in a dialogue to discuss coverage of the Games.
Olympic boycotts
Many Western countries are showing their disapproval of China’s human rights record with a diplomatic boycott of the Games. The Tibetan Review reports, “The United States, Canada and most of the 27 European Union countries, followed by Canada, Great Britain and Australia have announced their diplomatic boycott of the Games’ opening ceremony” and says that other countries are not sending a diplomatic representative but are not describing their absence as a “diplomatic boycott” – these include many European countries, Japan, and India. New Zealand has cited the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for its diplomatic absence. The Tibetan Review comments, “The absentee list will represent the most significant shunning of an Olympics since the 1980s” and that those leaders who do attend will be “sharing stage with the who’s who of authoritarian leaders”, notably Russian President Vladimir Putin who will be there as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s personal guest.
Sixty six European parliamentarians from 16 EU countries have called for EU countries to take a “common stance” and to boycott the Games as a “way to denounce the Chinese government for its human rights record especially in Tibet” in an opinion piece published by Euractiv.com. They are calling on EU Member States to refrain from attending in any capacity, recalling that despite China’s 2008 promise of progress in human rights and social conditions, the situation there, and in particular in Tibet, has only deteriorated.
China is reported to be employing US media firm Vippi Media in a US$300,000 contract to “boost its image for the Beijing Winter Olympics”, a contract which will run until March this year. There are reports that China has spent tens of millions of dollars over the last decade on an overseas social media campaign.
India has announced that she will not send a government delegation to the Games; it is reported that this is in response to the ongoing stand- off with China along the Tibet-India border where China is building up their military presence.
Demonstrations around the world
National Basketball Association (NBA) player Enes Kanter Freedom, 29, a professional basketball player with United States Boston Celtics, has called for a boycott. Kanter has publicly criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a “brutal dictator” and called on the Chinese government to “Free Tibet” which, he says, “belongs to Tibetans”. He has now called on his fellow athletes to “provide a voice for the voiceless”, and said that Olympic gold medals are worth “less than moral values”. Kanter says that he takes inspiration from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Former Tibetan political prisoner and activist, Ven Golog Jigme, who now lives in Switzerland, urged the Swiss Government to issue a public boycott and to send a strong message to the Chinese government saying, “As a refugee, I feel immense gratitude towards my government […] My appeal to the Swiss government is to boycott these Games, this is my hope. So most importantly, they should publicly declare the boycott of the Winter Olympics in China, that is my request.”
Dhondup Wangchen (left)
Golog Jigme’s compatriot, the well-known Tibetan filmmaker and former political prisoner Dhondup Wangchen has been campaigning in Vienna, Austria, at a rally held there by the Tibetan community and Uyghur association in Austria. At the rally, Dhondup Wangchen criticised Vienna for not taking part in the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, saying that awarding the Olympics to China is illegal.
In Berlin Tibetan and Jewish activists chained themselves to the doors of the Allianz headquarters – the multinational financial services company – and displayed a large banner which reads “Allianz: Drop the Genocide Games!” in protest against Allianz’s sponsorship for Beijing 2022.
A global day of action on January 4 saw a coalition of over a hundred human rights groups representing Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hong Konger, Taiwanese, and Chinese people, along with other international human rights organisations, joined by Tibetan activists and supporters worldwide, taking a “stand against one of the worst human rights crises of our times by boycotting the 2022 Beijing Winter Games” and calling for the International Olympic Committee to “acknowledge these human rights violations by China”. In Dharamshala, activists from the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, National Democratic Party of Tibet, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement Association of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet-India staged a protest and urged India and governments around the world to openly call for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics “as a way to build pressure on China to take positive, tangible steps to end the overwhelming human rights situation.”
And in Ladakh in northern India, the Ley chapters of the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women Association held a protest, urging all Tibetans to observe a “black day” on February 4, 2022, the day of the Olympic opening ceremony, to protest against the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights violations in Tibet, East Turkestan and Hong Kong and its “role in slaughtering millions of Tibetan, Uyghur, and Inner Mongolians”.
In a second Swiss protest, Tibetan musician Loten Namling has embarked on a march from Bern to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, calling on the Swiss government to announce a boycott and urging Swiss athletes to boycott the Games. He says he wants to draw the attention of athletes in Switzerland to the oppression of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolian and Hong Kongers by the Chinese government. He is wearing ski boots to “appeal to the sportsmen and women of Switzerland to kindly think of the suffering that the mountainous people of Tibet and others are experiencing under the oppressive Chinese regime and to do the right thing in boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics”.
January 29 saw a global day of action to launch a week of protests leading up to the Opening Ceremony on February 4.One open letter to the athletes asks, “Surely human life is worth more than medals? We urge you to choose the right side and stand against genocide.”
As participants and sponsors of the Games have begun to arrive in Beijing, protestors continue to push them to speak out. During a virtual press conference hosted by Human Rights Watch, Lhadon Tethong, co-chair of the International Tibet Network, said, “Your silence is their strength, this is what they want more than anything: that the world will play by China’s rules, that we will follow China’s lead, that we will look away from these atrocities and crimes for the sake of business as usual.”
China has retaliated to the calls for a boycott by claiming that the boycott is motivated by “ideological prejudice and based on lies and rumours,” and that it violates the Olympic principle of political neutrality.
UN to Visit East Turkestan?
Michelle Bachelet
China is reported to have agreed to host a visit to East Turkestan [Ch: Xinjiang], the area in northwestern China inhabited by the Muslim minority population of Uyghur people, by the United Nations head of human rights Michelle Bachelet “after the Olympics” – on condition that the visit is “friendly” and not “framed as an investigation”, to take place “in the first half of the year after the Beijing Winter Olympics”, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The UNHCR has been pursuing negotiations with Beijing to allow a visit since 2018; Ms Bachelet’s office has confirmed that they are in talks with China, and have said that it must be “meaningful, with unsupervised access”.
Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch, speaking to Reuters, has said that no one should be fooled by China’s attempt to distract from its crimes.
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