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The US has accused China of carrying out genocide.

Will it now boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics?
Analysis by Ben Westcott, CNN
 Updated 0559 GMT (1359 HKT) January 27, 2021

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(CNN) — The United States' determination that China is committing genocide in Xinjiang
presents a rare moral predicament for athletes and countries preparing to compete in the 2022
Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement on the last day of the
Trump administration, drawing attention to the systematic abuse of the minority Uyghur
population in China's far west.

The designation is the first by the US State Department since 2016, when then Secretary of Advertisement

State John Kerry determined that the atrocities committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria amounted to
genocide, and only among a handful of times a US administration has applied the term to an
ongoing crisis.

Genocide is defined by the United Nations as "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group," and although the US determination won't trigger any
immediate penalties, it will put pressure on anyone who does business with China -- and that
includes the 90 or so nations that are due to send athletes to the Winter Games in February next
year.

"Right now there is a lot of pressure on any kind of major engagements with the Chinese
government that involves lending (them) legitimacy," said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at
Human Rights Watch.

The prospect of US athletes competing in the capital of a country accused of carrying out an
ongoing genocide, will at the very least send mixed messages about Washington's commitment
to human rights.

Beijing has long denied claims of genocide, claiming its policies in Xinjiang are part of a program
of mass deradicalization and poverty alleviation. Last week a spokeswoman for the Chinese
Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo of spreading "venomous" lies, inviting people to visit Xinjiang
to "see with your own eyes."

Politicians in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the US have publicly raised the
prospect of not sending athletes to Beijing in 2022. While in March last year, 12 US senators led
by Republican Rick Scott submitted a bipartisan resolution requesting that the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) remove the 2022 Games from China and reopen the bidding process.
But to date no government or national sports authority has o cially announced it will be pulling
out.

CNN has reached out to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for comment.

In a statement to CNN, the IOC said that it had received "assurances" from Chinese authorities
that the principles of the Olympic Charter will be respected at the Beijing 2022 Games.

"Awarding the Olympic Games to a National Olympic Committee (NOC) does not mean that the
IOC agrees with the political structure, social circumstances or human rights standards in its
country," the statement said.

Activists and experts said that US' accusations will undoubtedly fuel calls for at least a partial
boycott of the Games. In September 2020, more than 160 human rights groups around the
world wrote to the IOC to reverse its decision to hold the 2022 Games in Beijing.

Mandie McKeown, executive director of the International Tibet Network, who coordinated the
letter, said that if they were to put together another group letter now, the number of
organizations would "undoubtedly" be higher.

She said if the Games couldn't be canceled, then her organization was advocating for a
diplomatic boycott of the event, which would allow teams to attend while world leaders stayed
away.

"The push for diplomatic boycott is definitely growing and noises (from governments) are
positive," McKeown said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with athletes and coaches of China's national figure skating and
short track speed skating teams while visiting the Capital Gymnasium in Haidian District, Beijing, on
January 18.

Politicizing the Games

Over the years there have been many calls for Olympic boycotts, either over alleged human
rights abuses or for political purposes.

In 1936, shortly before the beginning of World War II, pressure was placed on countries to
boycott the Summer Olympics in Berlin, which was presided over by then-Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

In 1976, more than 20 African nations boycotted the Montreal Summer Games over the
participation of New Zealand athletes, after the country's rugby team defied the United Nations
to go on a controversial tour of apartheid South Africa.

During the Cold War, the US and its allies boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow after
which the Soviet Union then boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

But Susan Brownell, an Olympics expert and professor of anthropology at the University of
Missouri-St Louis, said that from the Winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992 onwards there had
been no national boycotts.

"A broad consensus opposing boycotts emerged among national governments worldwide
because of the feeling that they accomplish nothing and only harm the athletes," she said.

There was a push by human rights organizations and NGOs for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing
Summer Olympics over the Chinese government's restrictions on civil liberties, especially in
regards to Tibetan minority groups, but in the end the Olympics went ahead as planned. "No-
one with the power to withdraw from the Games was seriously considering it," Brownell said.

But since then, allegations against Beijing in relation to mass detention camps in Xinjiang have
mounted. Beijing claims it's o ering Muslim minorities, including the Uyghurs, an education in
Chinese language and values as part of its anti-terrorism program.

"Languages, traditional cultures and customs of all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang have been well
protected and inherited. All residents fully enjoy their rights, including the right to subsistence
and development," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on January 20.

However, Uyghurs in exile say their families are being imprisoned for arbitrary o enses and
subjected to forced labor and abuse.

Even without formal boycotts, the 2022 event is likely to attract protests, though mass
demonstrations won't be possible in a country that prides itself on maintaining order.

McKeown, from the International Tibet Network, said her organization and other groups working
with it would be undertaking a program of action, including protests around the world, in the
lead up to the 2022 Beijing Games to draw attention to the Chinese government's human rights
abuses.

She said for now they were advocating for a political boycott, rather than a total boycott, for the
sake of the athletes.

"Athletes have worked incredibly hard to get where they are. It's not necessarily their concern
that the IOC made such a terrible mistake in giving the Games to Beijing," she said.

Individual athletes could still boycott the 2022 Games, although this would mean compromising
years of training and lucrative sponsorships. Under Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, any political
protests by individual competitors at the Games are banned.

'The power of sport'

An Olympics can still be heavily political even if there's no boycotts, and the 2022 Beijing Games
are likely to be no exception.

In 2018, at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, North and South Korea marched in the
Opening Ceremony under a United Korea banner, a powerful symbol of unity between the two
divided nations.

But the 2018 Games came at the same time as rising tensions between the US and North Korea.
At the Opening Ceremony, then-US Vice President Mike Pence appeared to act coldly towards
North Korean representatives, including the sister of leader Kim Jong Un.

A boycott by Western political leaders of the opening

and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Games is possible,
said Olympic expert Brownell, but she added that given
Winter Olympics rarely attracted the attention of the
Summer Games, many leaders were unlikely to go in
the first place.

Brownell said that she believed the worst damage to

Related Article: Beijing sanctions
outgoing US o cials as Chinese state
the Olympics' reputation didn't come from an
media bids 'good riddance' to Trump association with China or human rights issues. "The
damage seems to have come from the perception of
excess cost to the taxpayer and corruption in the IOC," she said.

Despite the genocide ruling by the US, no countries have publicly moved to downsize relations
with the Chinese government. And signs point to stronger ties, not weaker. In late December, for
example, the European Union struck a wide-reaching investment agreement with Beijing despite
the concerns of human rights organizations.

Human rights activists said it was too early to say whether or not a boycott of the 2022 Games,
political or otherwise, was likely to go ahead.

And that's assuming the Games even go ahead as planned. Events in Beijing are scheduled to
begin on Friday, February 4, 2022 -- just over 12 months away. But as the postponement of last
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year's Summer Games in Tokyo has shown, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown doubt on
countries' ability to host large sporting events.

With numerous potential problems ahead, Wang, of Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese
government needed to be given a chance to respond to international concerns over their actions
in Xinjiang and the crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong.

But Wang said that she found it hard to see that happening and without demonstrable changes
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in Beijing's behavior, there could be a "change of perception among other governments." dating sites
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"They are going to have to make a decision," Wang said. Human Rights Watch is currently not
calling for any boycott of the 2022 Games.

In response to a question about a potential boycott in 2022 on January 20, Foreign Ministry
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spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that "preparations are being smoothly carried out." "We have
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development clauses to Olympic Host City contracts in the future. However, the new rules will
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It is unclear how the clauses will be policed or what will happen if a host city breaks them.

In its statement to CNN, the IOC said that it recognizes and upholds human rights but at the
same time, couldn't change laws or the political system in a sovereign country. "This must
Russian woman Analysis: Senate
rightfully remain the legitimate role of governments and respective intergovernmental who swam under Republicans just
organizations," the statement said. Siberia's ice may… took 2 big hits…

The IOC said that the Olympic Games had a unique role in bringing the world together.

"In our fragile world, the power of sport to bring the whole world together, despite all the existing
di erences, gives us all hope for a better future," the statement said. China builds Son tips o FBI
massive Covid-19 about father
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Munich as the host city of the quarantine camp attending Capitol…
for…
1936 Olympic Games. The Games were held in Berlin.

PA I D C O N T E N T

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