Taiwan legislators call for boycott of Beijing Olympics 2022 amid human rights concern

Citing reports of continued human rights violations in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, Taiwan legislators from the opposition New Power Party (NPP) have called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics 2022 to be held in Beijing. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday. 

NPP chairperson and legislator Chen Jiau-hua underlined that China is "unqualified" to host the Olympics due to the ongoing human rights abuses and crackdown on people of various ethnic groups, religious beliefs and sexual orientation, "which is exactly the opposite" to what is written Olympic Creed, Focus Taiwan reported. Additionally, she asserted that the boycott must also must be considered in observing China's military intimidation towards Taiwan.

China is "not fit to be the host country of Olympics Games given its long history of human rights violations and disregard for democratic values," Chen Jiau-hua, NPP chairperson and legislator said on Wednesday.

Reiterating the chairperson's remarks, another NPP legislator Claire Wang highlighted the much-talked-about missing case of Chinese Tennis star Peng Shuai.

"Women and female athletes are most vulnerable to sexual coercion under authoritarianism, which can be observed from Chinese professional tennis star Peng Shuai's accusation against former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Ghaoli and how the top Chinese authority reacted to the event," Wang said.

Calling for a 'resolution' to announce a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games, Wang added that it is to ensure the protection of the "nation's competitive athletes".

NPP chairperson Chen called on other parties to support the resolution put forth by the NPP earlier this month. As per Focus Taiwan, the proposal, however, only urges the Cabinet to "carefully assess and pay attention to international efforts to boycott the 24th Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 and come up with a correct response at an appropriate time."

Talking about the proposal, Chen also emphasised that it was "important for Taiwan to take a stance on the Winter Games," which are scheduled for February 4 to 20, 2022 because it participates in the international community. Human Rights groups have also upheld their call for boycotting the Winter Olympics, Tang Sen-hong (founder or Taiwan Association for China Human Rights) told CNA broadcaster. 

He stressed that the main goal of passing the proposed resolution is to put pressure on the Cabinet to take a stance and stand with other democratic countries in ways aligned with the international community.

UK and US mulling over diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics 2022

The developments come hot at the heels of the US and UK mulling over the boycott of the Games. While the US has refused to send a delegation to the opening and closing ceremonies for the Games, UK leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg last Thursday confirmed that "no tickets have been booked" for ministers to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics.

His assertions came as a response to a question from Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Member of Parliament, co-chair of the cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) on whether the UK government would opt for a diplomatic boycott following the US.

The declaration comes after international impetus behind the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games, beginning with the Biden administration stating that no US government officials will be attending the Games, IPAC said in a statement. Also, there is an "active discussion" in the government about whether Britain would follow the suit poised by Biden, The Times reported, quoting UK foreign secretary Liz Truss, who is said to be in favour.

(Image: AP)