Several countries have announced they will be boycotting the Winter Olympics. But why?
Every four years, the world tunes in to watch the pinnacle of winter sports at the Olympic Games. And while the 2022 Beijing Games will undoubtedly see us stunned by the talent on display, the event will have a slightly different feel to it this time around.
With rising tensions surrounding China’s lamentable human rights record – in particular the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in the state of Xinjiang – numerous countries are planning to make a stand, and protect their athletes competing at the Games.
"It's a genocide games."
Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers and Tigrayans all told us why they need you to boycott the #winterolympics pic.twitter.com/BwVNcySmnh
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) February 3, 2022
Several countries are sending their athletes to China for the sporting festival, but many have opted to boycott the Games on diplomatic grounds by refusing to send government officials.
Others have claimed that they won’t be sending officials to Beijing amid fears over the coronavirus pandemic, however some reports have suggested that this is an added factor alongside their concerns around the welfare of people in the country.
Who will be boycotting?
Below is a list of all the countries who have confirmed they will be implementing a diplomatic boycott during this year’s Games.
- Lithuania
- USA
- United Kingdom/GB
- Australia
- Canada
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Kosovo
These countries have also called for their athletes not to speak out against the Chinese government during their time in Beijing, with Team GB even providing all their competitors with temporary mobile phones after they were warned they would be subjected to ‘Orwellian’ levels of surveillance.
Why are they boycotting?
There are a plethora of reasons behind each competing nation’s decision to announce a diplomatic boycott, or refuse to take part altogether.
Largely, the decision comes down to China’s concerning human rights record. Human Rights Watch recorded details of the Chinese government introducing methods such as the “National Security Law” which affected many people, including protesters in neighbouring Hong Kong, by restricting their right to exercise freedom of speech.
Additionally, several countries were also alarmed by the treatment of China’s most recognisable tennis player, Peng Shuai, who went missing after she made allegations that she was sexually assaulted by a former vice-premier of China, and a high-ranking communist party member.
Shuai wasn’t seen or heard from for nearly three weeks, before she broke her silence in an email sent to the WTA.
The treatment of Uyghur Muslims
The most recent and disturbing of these issues is the treatment of the Uyghur muslim community. Mostly located in the Xinjiang region of the state, where there are estimated to be around 12 million Uyghurs, China’s treatment has been described as ‘inhumane’, with many countries, including the former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who described the situation as ‘genocide’ in January 2021.
“I have determined that the PRC [People’s Republic of China], under the direction and control of the CCP [Chinese Communist party], has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” he said
“I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state.”
Xinjiang is similar to states such as Tibet, which are known as autonomous regions. This means that while they are self-governing in some aspects, they are still largely controlled by Beijing.
During the early 20th century, Uyghur Muslims had briefly declared independence from China, however that ended in 1949 when China’s newly formed Communist government regained complete control.
Uyghurs speak their own language, which has similarities to Turkish, and regard themselves, both culturally and ethnically, more closely to central Asian nations such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Recent decades have seen an increase in the number of Han Chinese – China’s most common ethnic group – migrate into the area, with some claiming that this has been an orchestrated attempt by the Chinese government to reduce the proportion of Uyghurs, who now account for less than half of the population in Xinjiang.
Human rights groups believe that over a million Uyghur Muslims have been detained in locations the Chinese government call “re-education camps”, while hundreds of thousands of others have been sentenced to prison time.
Officials in China believe that Uyghurs hold both extremist and separatist ideologies which they feel are a threat to the country. President Xi Jingping has previously warned of the “toxicity of religious extremism” and whilst not openly encouraging the use of detention camps, laid the foundations for the idea of them.
The state of Xinjiang is also China’s hub for their ‘belt and road initiative’ which has plans to stretch from East Asia all the way into Europe as a way to expand both their political and economic influence. A report from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said that many Uyghurs detained were forced to work in factories as way of helping to develop China economically
Tursunay Ziawudun was a camp detainee who spent nine months inside a “re-education camp” where she explained during an interview with the BBC just some of the atrocities that occurred.
She recalled that those on guard would wear suits as oppose to to police uniforms whilst also revealing that women were removed from their cells “every night” and ‘raped by one or more masked Chinese men’ whilst also admitting to being tortured.
China have also been accused of actively targeting figures from the Muslim religion, in addition to destroying tombs and mosques with religious practices also banned and in 2017, Xinjiang’s government officials passed an anti-extremism law that prohibits people from growling long beards or from wearing veils in public.
Who has called out China and how did they respond?
Several nations including the US, Canada and the Netherlands have chosen to publicly criticise China – accusing them of committing genocide, as first reported by the BBC.
The UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab also said back in April 2021 that the treatment of Uyghurs was a ‘violation of the most basic human rights’, with the UK parliament later declaring that the country had committed genocide in the state of Xinjiang.
China, meanwhile, has denied all allegations surrounding their treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Additionally, they’ve also denied claims they have violated human rights and have issued warnings to their most vocal critics not to interfere with internal affairs between Beijing and Hong Kong.
As with any regime that grossly mistreats its citizens, the chance to host a major international event will undoubtedly see the full effects of sports-washing come to fruition.
The purpose of events such as these for governments like the one ruling China is simple: create an image of your country to the outside world which is far and away from the reality of those living within its borders.
Many people around the world can see this, and protests are both ongoing and widespread, but until the IOC and other sports governing bodies begin to see through the facade and move their priorities away from the almighty dollar, very little will change.
