Olympic boycott of China needs urgent and serious consideration
- Written by Senator Abetz
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to carefully consider whether it should proceed with China as host of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
The 2022 Winter Games will be the last Olympics exempt from human rights principles being incorporated in host city contracts by the IOC, which will bind hosts to UN conventions from Paris 2024 onwards. China's hosting in 2022 is a glaring choice before the Conventions become part of the contact.
British MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, has rightfully asked that "the IOC thinks again about hosting in China."
160 human rights advocacy groups also delivered a joint letter to the chief of the International Olympic Committee calling for Beijing to be removed as host of the Games over its actions in Hong Kong and detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
"It is well-documented that China continues to perpetrate systematic abuses of human rights and this is why a boycott should be seriously considered. Is it appropriate to award the regime with such a prestigious and global event as the Winter Olympic Games?".
"The Winter Olympic Games is an opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship, such as the National Socialist regime of Adolf Hitler did in the 1930s, to exert nationalistic propaganda and political theatre. Sport Australia and Australian athletes should carefully consider whether they want to provide support for such a regime."
"Given the recent departure of the last Australian journalists in China, reporting on the Olympics also raises serious concerns as to whether journalists wellbeing and safety can be guaranteed."
Senator Abetz is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and Chair of the Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
