Explained: Why the world wants to boycott Beijing’s Winter Olympics 2022
Just two months before the commencement of the Winter Olympics 2022 in the Chinese capital Beijing, the United States of America has declared its intention to implement diplomatic boycott on the mega sporting event because of what Washington describes as a genocide against minority Muslims in China's western region of Xinjiang. While the heads of states (Presidents and Prime Ministers) won’t attend the Beijing Olympics, this diplomatic boycott allows athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics 2022.
This is in accordance with human rights organizations, lawmakers, celebrities and several sports teams that have also expressed their intention to pull away from the upcoming Olympics as a form of protest. In fact, Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization, has also urged Olympics sponsors like Samsung, Airbnb and Coca-Cola to support their cause.
Trigger behind the boycott
Apart from the US, several other European nations including the British government have supported this diplomatic boycott. The aim is to protest against the alleged human rights abuses going on in China for over months now. About 180 human rights groups from the participating countries have urged their respective governments to withdraw from the upcoming Winter Olympics at Beijing.
According to these countries and organizations, participating in the Olympics will imply that the world is supporting the authoritarian regimen that the world is alleging the Chinese Communist Party of. China has also been accused of anti-democratic enforcements in Hong Kong and the disappearance of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.
What is China’s reaction to this impending boycott?
China is strongly against this impending boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. Chinese officials have stated that their government condemns and rejects USA and its allies’ efforts to sabotage their Olympics preparation and have tagged this boycott a means to exhibit their ideological and socio-political prejudices. China is also confident that the world will soon see through this defamation and the Olympics will be successfully conducted as per plans.
What alternative has been suggested?
The protestors are now rooting for the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to immediately alter the venue and shift the Games to a different country altogether. However, the IOC has tagged this as a socio-political difference and has expressed its wish to stay out of it and remain neutral.
History behind Olympics boycott
This is not the first time in the history of Olympics that one or more nations have requested a boycott. Way back in 1980, USA had completely boycotted the Olympics held at the Russian capital Moscow as a protest against Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. While the US steered clear of that year’s Olympics, many other countries did participate in the mega games. There were also attempts to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a protest against Hitler’s Nazi party’s invasion of Germany.