Beijing 2022: 180 human rights groups call for Winter Olympics boycott

[PC2]

The Chinese government is evil but I don't really see that as a justification for a boycott as long as foreigners can criticize the government and not get punished or "disappeared" while in China.

Engagement is better than avoidance.

[Frolk]

Due to blood covered CCP money, big companies will not boycott this.

These companies always come out and say they are for Human Rights etc etc, just see how they interacted with BLM, but when a stance for Human Rights start costing them money, they drop it like yesterdays news.

[Slant]

A lot of huge events dont boycott most countries, Qatar, Isreal, Russia and the list goes on. What is so different now.

Feeling righteous when talking about China is the latest fad. It's easy to ignore the shit going on in your own country when China is literally having concentration/work camps and does all kinds of hellish shit to that Muslim group.

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Due to blood covered CCP money, big companies will not boycott this.

These companies always come out and say they are for Human Rights etc etc, just see how they interacted with BLM, but when a stance for Human Rights start costing them money, they drop it like yesterdays news.

It's a sad reality, but private companies are typically not in the business of enforcing human rights. They are in the business of maximising profit with whatever it is they chose to do. Governments are the ones responsible to enforce human rights. And only because the people decided to force that on the Government's agendas.

[Yriel]

Exactly nothing will happen.

In any case, all sports events worldwide should be currently boycotted. All until even the last county has defeated covid

What if it is never defeated and it will stay with us, just like the common cold?

[PC2]

What if it is never defeated and it will stay with us, just like the common cold?

Covid will remain in existence after the pandemic is over but it's not a big deal because humans are in the process of defeating all harmful micro-organisms.

[cubby]

Genocide and other human rights violations not good enough a reason? Fuck that about being disrespectful. Honestly, now.

Genocide and other human rights violations are good enough reasons - so why aren't we boycotting the entire country instead of just certain events? Why the Olympics and not anything made in China? @Slant brings up a good point - athletes train for years for the Olympics - why do they have to be punished for these one-off protests?

[Doctor Amadeus]

A lot of huge events dont boycott most countries, Qatar, Isreal, Russia and the list goes on. What is so different now.

A bunch of right wing conservatives who especially hate Asians I mean communism and blame them for well everything want to keep peddling this nonsense they care or ever cared about human right. To try to stick it to the libs lol.

[Magical Mudcrab]

A bunch of right wing conservatives who especially hate Asians I mean communism and blame them for well everything want to keep peddling this nonsense they care or ever cared about human right. To try to stick it to the libs lol.

I'm not too sure how to unpack this.
Why would the conservatives, who in this case you are saying are vicious racists, want to intervene and take action against China, when China is in the middle of carrying out multiple genocides against Muslim minority groups? They would be the least effective racists of all time.
Additionally, how would this be "stick[ing] it to the libs"? The "libs" literally want to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

[Stelio Kontos]

A bunch of right wing conservatives who especially hate Asians I mean communism and blame them for well everything want to keep peddling this nonsense they care or ever cared about human right. To try to stick it to the libs lol.

How does the 21st century's Nazi Germany, the CCP, committing genocide and bullying most of its other ethnic minorities and bordering nations, have anything to do with American politics? Are you so deep in the kool-aid you see even international issues in terms of your own nation's politics only?

If someone turns a blind eye to genocide because of their political grudges, fuck them.

[Doctor Amadeus]

I'm not too sure how to unpack this.
Why would the conservatives, who in this case you are saying are vicious racists, want to intervene and take action against China, when China is in the middle of carrying out multiple genocides against Muslim minority groups? They would be the least effective racists of all time.
Additionally, how would this be "stick[ing] it to the libs"? The "libs" literally want to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

Optics be seen doing one thing and doing another. The motives here are inconsistent with the loudest people calling for action now.

This is entirely political and has nothing to do with anything else.

[OwenBurton]

The Chinese government is evil but I don't really see that as a justification for a boycott as long as foreigners can criticize the government and not get punished or "disappeared" while in China.

Engagement is better than avoidance.

Would you treat Russia, Iran and North Korea any differently? Admittedly, China has problems. But sadly, it is frankly not easy to hold America as morally superior, after what has happened over the last several years. I am quite honestly not even sure whether most Western countries prefer America to China at this point.

[kamuimac]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ympics-boycott

More than 180 human rights organisations have called for a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in protest against China’s mass human rights abuses.

The coalition of groups – primarily regional associations in support of Tibet, Taiwan, the Uighur community and Hong Kong – said the hopes in 2015 that awarding Beijing the Games would be a catalyst for progress, had faded.

“Since then … President Xi Jinping has unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on basic freedom and human rights,” the group said, calling on governments to boycott the event to ensure it wasn’t used to “embolden” the Chinese government as they said the 2008 summer Olympics had done.

The open letter published this week said: “The IOC [ International Olympic Committee] refused to listen in 2008, defending its decision with claims that they would prove to be a catalyst for improved human rights. As human rights experts predicted, this decision proved to be hugely misplaced; not only did China’s human rights record not improve but violations increased substantially without rebuke.

“Now, in 2021, we find ourselves back in the same position with the IOC who are refusing to act despite the clear evidence of genocide and widespread and worsening human rights failures.”

China is under growing international pressure over its widely documented abuses and detention of Uighurs and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang, as well as its crackdown on dissent domestically and in Hong Kong, surveillance and enforced labour programmes in Tibet, suppression of language and culture in Inner Mongolia, and aggressive posturing towards Taiwan.

In recent years its government and senior officials have been subjected to various sanctions and multilateral statements of condemnation, which have done little to change the behaviour.

But there appears little appetite from countries for a boycott, including in the US, which has formally declared that China’s abuses in Xinjiang to amount to genocide.

“We’re not currently talking about changing our posture or our plans as it relates to the Beijing Olympics,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee said it believed it was more effective for governments to engage China directly on human rights concerns, and boycotts “have been shown to negatively impact athletes while not effectively addressing global issues”.

Asked about the letter, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said at a regular press briefing “all Winter Games lovers are looking forward to taking part in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics”.

“We are fully confident the Beijing Winter Olympics will be a splendid event. In the meantime I must point out that it is highly irresponsible for some parties to try and disrupt, intervene, and sabotage the preparation and holding of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games to serve their political interests,” Wang said.

“Such actions will not be supported by the international community and will never succeed.”

It came as Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the IOC of failing its due diligence in not conducting a human rights risk assessment.

“The IOC knows the Chinese authorities are arbitrarily detaining Uighurs and other Muslims, expanding state surveillance, and silencing numerous peaceful critics,” said Sophie Richardson, HRW’s China director. “Its failure to publicly confront Beijing’s serious human rights violations makes a mockery of its own commitments and claims that the Olympics are a ‘force for good’.”

And apparently, now China, through its media mouth-piece, is threatening any official or state that boycotts the Olympics.

nothing will happen .

people whine abut human rights only when it has no impact on their cozy life.

thats why west will loose completly to east during this century .

[JohnBrown1917]

I'm not too sure how to unpack this.
Why would the conservatives, who in this case you are saying are vicious racists, want to intervene and take action against China, when China is in the middle of carrying out multiple genocides against Muslim minority groups? They would be the least effective racists of all time.
Additionally, how would this be "stick[ing] it to the libs"? The "libs" literally want to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

Because communism bad and they just want an excuse to shit on the Chinese, do you think the people claiming to care about those muslim groups.. actually care? Its like the far right claiming it wants to protect LGBT rights, nothing new.

[Dezerte]

I have doubts about whether a boycott would have any effect. I'd say the more effective way would be to go after China economically, and project more soft power over them.

But I don't feel particularly strongly either way, Chinese politics (external/internal) is not an area I'm very familiar with.

[Magical Mudcrab]

Because communism bad and they just want an excuse to shit on the Chinese, do you think the people claiming to care about those muslim groups.. actually care? Its like the far right claiming it wants to protect LGBT rights, nothing new.

OK, so your concern is that you believe that the countries that respond negatively - because I don't think you would try and claim international organizations like Human Rights Watch are closeted, racism-driven conservatives - are doing so due to ideological opposition to China (possibly due to antagonism towards Communism). I am willing to grant that this may be the case groups like the GoP in America, which has historically proposed and enforces xenophobic policy (i.e.: the Muslim ban, for instance); however, applying this label widely, even just to conservatives in other Western nations, is a very America-centric view of the world (America is much farther to the right-wing than any other Western nation). On this issue in particular, most Western nations, and coalitions of Western nations (i.e.: EU), have previously condemned and either sanctioned China or have sought to have their members impose sanctions on China over this issue, this incident with the IOC is simply this coming to a more public view (i.e.: non-political people typically don't know/care about these sorts of issues until it affects them, even in the most trivial of ways). Even if I were to be the most cynical person in the world and believed that any nation is actually taking action against China is simply a form of virtue signaling in that they don't care about the Muslim minority and simply care about taking action against China, that's fine. A countries self-interest (in this case, ideational interest if we were to take it as being an anti-Communism position) will always be factored in when they make decisions. Even if it ends up being badly motivated, a badly motivated decision which can be leveraged for a well motivated cause shouldn't be actively worked against or derided, though I would understand calling out specific groups or individuals for being hypocrites and having a double standard if one appears to exist.

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I have doubts about whether a boycott would have any effect. I'd say the more effective way would be to go after China economically, and project more soft power over them.

But I don't feel particularly strongly either way, Chinese politics (external/internal) is not an area I'm very familiar with.

That's one of the things that the US Olympic Committees noted, was that these types of boycotts do not address the issue while negatively impacting athletes. In counter to this, I would ask whether symbolic action matters. Not to deviate too far off topic, but a good example of this is the impeachment of Trump, who is almost certainly not going to be convicted due to the Republican party being horrifically tribal and unwilling to let him take the fall, though Democrats persisted with the impeachment because it has symbolic meaning (i.e.: it shows that they, who represent more than half the country, condemns Trump and his actions, and shows who is complicit with his incitement). Even if the boycott does not have a meaningful impact on the issue, it at least shows who is willing to take action, even something so minor as to withdraw from an athletic competition.

[Dezerte]

That's one of the things that the US Olympic Committees noted, was that these types of boycotts do not address the issue while negatively impacting athletes. In counter to this, I would ask whether symbolic action matters. Not to deviate too far off topic, but a good example of this is the impeachment of Trump, who is almost certainly not going to be convicted due to the Republican party being horrifically tribal and unwilling to let him take the fall, though Democrats persisted with the impeachment because it has symbolic meaning (i.e.: it shows that they, who represent more than half the country, condemns Trump and his actions, and shows who is complicit with his incitement). Even if the boycott does not have a meaningful impact on the issue, it at least shows who is willing to take action, even something so minor as to withdraw from an athletic competition.

Yeah, there are many arguments to consider.

[Shadowferal]

How's the air quality? Last time Beijing got dissed by a lot of runners because...well, breathing can be an issue in smog, and particulate laden air.

[Rustedsaint]

All the countries that partake in the olympics should pool resources just to make a neutral moveable island that can host the olympics so people stop getting political about it.

[Forogil]

How's the air quality? Last time Beijing got dissed by a lot of runners because...well, breathing can be an issue in smog, and particulate laden air.

And it's winter-time - which mean that instead of summer-smog we get the winter-smog due to people burning coal for heating.
It's possible that China will ban all of that next year, but...

Currently the air quality is poor, with large number of particulars https://www.accuweather.com/en/cn/be...y-index/101924

[Yadryonych]

A bunch of right wing conservatives who especially hate Asians I mean communism and blame them for well everything want to keep peddling this nonsense they care or ever cared about human right. To try to stick it to the libs lol.

The libs are pretty much in that bandwagon as well, a nice excuse for them to go on with trump's anti-china policy while pretending as good samaritans