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Updated July 25th, 2021 at 12:22 IST

Relocate Winter Olympics if China doesn't end 'genocide against Uyghurs': US lawmakers

A group of US lawmakers called on the IOC to postpone the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and relocate the games unless China ends “genocide" against Uyghurs

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
Winter Olympics
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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A group of US lawmakers on July 23 called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and relocate the games' venue unless China ends “genocide” against Uyghurs and other minority groups. According to ANI, US Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative James McGovern released a letter to Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, asking him to postpone the 2022 Winter Games and to relocate them if the host country does not end its “egregious human rights abuses”. In the letter, the two American officials said, "No Olympics should be held in a country whose government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity”. 

The Chairs were joined on the letter by Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Christopher Smith, both former Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Chairs. The CECC said that the action would also be in the “best interests” of the athletes. It added that the commission finds it “unfair” for the IOC to force athletes to sacrifice their conscience in order to pursue their competitive goals or vice versa. 

“To proceed with business as usual is implied consent and suggests the IOC has learned nothing from the Chinese government's use of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to score propaganda wins and distract from its appalling human rights record,” the CECC said. 

It added, “This is not a matter of whether the Olympics should be immune from politics. Taking action against genocide is not politics. It is about basic morality and human dignity. Again, we urge you to postpone the Beijing Winter Games and relocate them to a different country if the host government does not stop committing genocide and crimes against humanity”. 

UK govt urged to boycott 2022 Winter Olympics 

Roughly 11 million Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority that speak a language closely related to Turkish and have their own distinct culture, live in alleged ‘concentration camps’ in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region, which China calls vocational training centres designed to fight extremism. The rights groups have accused Beijing of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour. The European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States have sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic hierarchy in coordinated action over the allegations.

Reports by Western media have also revealed that Chinese authorities were deliberately sending Uyghur women of childbearing age into forced abortions, intrauterine injections and sterilisation in the region. However, the Chinese government has rejected the allegations and characterised the camps, which it says are now closed, as vocational training centres to teach the Chinese language, job skills and the law in order to support economic development and combat extremism. Meanwhile, last week, the UK House of Commons had unanimously passed a motion calling for the British government to stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics unless China ends the "atrocities" taking place in Xinjiang province.

(With inputs from ANI)

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Published July 25th, 2021 at 12:22 IST

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