US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on May 18 called on the US through diplomacy to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Ms. Pelosi criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for human rights abuses, At the same time, she also urged world leaders to boycott the 2022 Olympics.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. (Artwork: Al Teich / Shutterstock).
Voices calling for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics among US congressmen are growing. They also criticized American companies, saying that their silence about the US State Department’s assessment that the CCP committed the genocide of the Uighurs was inciting the CCP government to do bad things.
Pelosi: Head of state coming to Beijing to participate in the Olympics will lose moral authority
Reuters reported that on May 18, at a bipartisan hearing on the issue, Ms. Pelosi said heads of countries around the world should boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled to be held in October. February 2022.
“Joining with those who are suggesting, my suggestion is a diplomatic boycott,” Pelosi said, in this situation, “heads of major countries in the world not participating in the Olympics.” “.
“Let’s not put gilded lipstick on the Chinese Government (CCP) by sending the head of state to China.” “Considering that a genocide is underway, the head of state coming to China – when you are in your seat – really raises the question, what moral authority do you have for once,” Ms. Pelosi said. talk about human rights anywhere in the world?”
Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern says the Olympics should be moved to another country.
“If we can delay the Games by a year because of an endemic pandemic, we can certainly delay the Games by a year because of a genocide,” said Jim McGovern. The first half of Jim McGovern’s sentence is that Japan and the International Olympic Committee decided to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This will give the International Olympic Committee time to move (the 2022 Winter Olympics) to a country where the government does not commit atrocities,” said Jim McGovern.
Since the beginning of the year, the voice of this international community calling for some form of boycott of the Beijing Olympics has grown.
Last month, Republican Senator Mitt Romney proposed amending a law (amendment) to deal with the CCP more broadly, thereby enforcing a US diplomatic boycott of the Olympics. Beijing Association.
Mitt Romney said that a country that simultaneously enforced genocide and was allowed to host the Olympics was “shocking and infuriating”.
“This amendment urges [the Biden administration] to conduct a diplomatic boycott, so we won’t send any diplomatic officials to the Olympics,” Mitt Romney said at a Senate hearing. there (Beijing).” He added, it is still necessary to allow young American athletes to participate in this competition for them to realize their dreams.
Human rights activist urges athletes to boycott Beijing Olympics
In addition to boycotting the Olympics, the bipartisan hearing on May 18 also discussed the CCP’s human rights record. Before this hearing took place, human rights activists on the same day also called on athletes to boycott the Beijing Olympics and put pressure on the International Olympic Committee.
“There is still time to make changes. This is not necessarily the end of the story,” said Lhadon Tethong of the Tibet Action Research Center, “Athletes have incredible power and a stage to change the world.”
“If they can speak up for everyone’s right to survival and also the right to live lives free of fear and oppression… this will make a huge impact.”
Human rights activist Zumretay Arkin of the World Uyghur Congress, said he has more than 50 relatives in detention in China.
“We have lost family, loved ones and friends.” Mr. Arkin added, “I urge athletes to put themselves in that situation to think for us. They may lose one Olympics, but we have lost our family.”
“I think for them it is important to use the power they have (to boycott the Olympics), because athletes are not puppets that the International Olympic Committee or the government can arbitrary control.”
