URGENTLY COMMIT TO A GOVERNMENT BOYCOTT OF THE 2022 WINTER OLYMPICS IN BEIJING

Dear World Leaders

We, a coalition of over 180 groups, jointly call on governments to commit to a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent.

At the end of July 2015, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selected Beijing as the host city for the 2022 Winter Games. Since then—and despite claims by the IOC and Beijing Olympic Committee that the Games will serve as a catalyst for progress—President Xi Jinping has unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on basic freedom and human rights.

The situation in occupied Tibet has dramatically deteriorated and has been transformed into a surveillance state with over 1,000 political prisoners facing torture and even death; in East Turkistan (Ch: Xinjiang) between 1.8 and three million Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples are arbitrarily detained in “re-education camps,” enduring inhuman treatment and political indoctrination; in Hong Kong, the city’s vibrant community of human rights activists and outspoken youths have been rounded up by the thousands for simply advocating for democracy; in Southern Mongolia, children are being deprived of their right to speak their mother tongue, as the Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on cultural differences. China’s reach extends to extreme intimidation and geopolitical bullying of Taiwan and aggression and expansion across borders in the South China Sea and India-Tibet border, which present a clear threat to regional and global security.

For two decades, our coalition, members of frontline communities, and numerous human rights groups have repeatedly sought to inform the IOC about these conditions, explain the dangers of awarding China the Olympic Games, and caution against accepting any human rights assurances from one of the world’s worst human rights violators.

The IOC 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.

It now falls on governments to take a stand and demonstrate that they have the political will to push back against China’s reprehensible human rights abuses.

We, therefore, call on governments to boycott the Beijing 2022 Games – anything less will be seen as an endorsement of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian rule and blatant disregard for civil and human rights.

Yours sincerely,

Mandie McKeown – Executive Director, International Tibet Network – on behalf

Dolkun Isa, World Uyghur Congress
Dorjee Tseten, Students for a Free Tibet
Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs
Frances Hui, WeTheHongKongers
Omer Kanat, Uyghur Human Rights Project
Jenny Wang, Keep Taiwan Free
Teng Biao, China Against the Death Penalty
Mattias Bjornerstedt, Swedish Tibet Committee
周锋锁 Zhou Fengsuo, Humanitarian China
John Jones, Free Tibet
Zoe Bedford, Australia Tibet Council
Bhuchung Tsering, International Campaign for Tibet
Enghebatu Togochog, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Center
Tashi Shitsetsang, Tibetan Youth Association Europe

and the following organisations in alphabetical order: