China Celebrates: Supporting Genocide Olympics Is 'Mainstream'

Frances MartelDecember 14, 2021

China’s government newspaper the Global Times applauded the fact that no nation in the world has committed to boycotting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Monday, ignoring calls from international human rights leaders to pay respect to the victims of Chinese communism by not honoring Beijing with hosting duties.

President Joe Biden led the world in announcing that the American team would participate in the Winter Olympics despite his administration formally announcing in March that it believed that dictator Xi Jinping’s extermination policies against Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in East Turkistan constitute a “genocide.” Biden press secretary Jen Psaki announced that American politicians would not attend the Games, instead, branding the move a “diplomatic boycott.”

Xi has instituted a policy of imprisoning Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz people in East Turkistan, and Tibetans in their homeland, in a large system of concentration camps. The U.S. government has estimated that as many as 3 million people in East Turkistan have been imprisoned in concentration camps. Survivors say they endured gang rape, torture with electric devices, indoctrination, and slavery in the camps, among other abuses.

Beijing responded to Biden’s move by noting that politicians do not play in Olympic sports, so their absence does not constitute a “boycott” and will have no effect on the Games. The Communist Party further noted that Xi never invited American diplomats to attend the event, so they would not be present, anyway.

There’s a reason why the world is uniting to boycott the Communist Chinese Genocide Olympics. https://t.co/cUBW8wl5Vn

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 31, 2021

The Global Times gloated on Monday that few countries have committed to even the “diplomatic” non-boycott of the Games. Some countries, notably Austria and New Zealand, have gone as far as to announce their politicians would not visit the event but that their absence is not a political statement, but rather the product of logistics. Taiwan, a nation China regularly threatens to invade and colonize, has not even committed to this much at press time, despite the possibility that its officials may be imprisoned and disappeared into the deadly Chinese legal system for being present in Beijing.

“With clear opposition to the U.S.-led politicization of the Beijing 2022 from these two heavyweight E.U. member states, it is evident that supporting the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing is now the mainstream position of the region,” a regular Global Times “expert,” Chinese professor Li Haidong, told the newspaper.

Another Communist Party-approved “expert,” a researcher identified as Lü Chao, claimed, “it is a common consensus that Olympic sports are independent from politics and the US is going against such a consensus, which will only hurt itself.”

Tibetan activists from the Students for a Free Tibet association hold a placard during a protest at the entrance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters ahead of the February’s Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in Lausanne, on December 11, 2021. (VALENTIN FLAURAUD/AFP via Getty)

The Global Times was quick to note that many of the countries that have not agreed to a diplomatic “boycott” or a real boycott are other Olympic hosts. France, scheduled to host the next Summer Olympics, announced it would fully participate in the Beijing Olympics. Similarly, South Korea, host of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, expressed full support to the Chinese Communist Party in its hosting duties.

Another supporter of note is Argentina, currently led by leftist President Alberto Fernández. Fernández has used his position as president to bring Argentina closer into China’s sphere of influence, granting it access to perks like China’s low-quality Chinese coronavirus vaccine products. Prior to Fernández taking over, alleged center-right predecessor Mauricio Macri went as far as to award Xi Jinping, one of the world’s deadliest human rights abuses, Argentina’s highest honor, the Order of the Liberator General San Martín.

China has for years threatened Argentina’s sovereignty through the use of illegal fishing brigades, meeting with little resistance.

“Argentina’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement entitled ‘Strong Support for the Beijing Olympics,’ while stressing it is one of the first countries to express support for the event to be held in February 2022,” the Global Times relayed, “which will coincide with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the South American country.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has, like the Global Times, celebrated countries that have embraced China as an Olympics host despite its ongoing genocide of Uyghurs, and Tibetans and rampant human rights abuses against citizens of nearly every social category – even communists.

Biden will not back an athletic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, but backed a boycott of Atlanta by the MLB All-Star Game. https://t.co/5M3RFq6GEa

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 11, 2021

“It is the common aspiration of the international community, especially national Olympic committees and athletes from across the world, to respect the political neutrality of the Olympic Movement and avoid politicizing sports,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday. “Politicization of the Olympics not only undermine the human right of athletes, but also constitute an affront to the Olympic spirit and run counter to the trend of the times for solidarity and cooperation.”

In February, a year out from the Beijing Olympics, a group of over 150 human rights groups issued an open letter urging the world to boycott the event, noting that China’s abuses against its own people greatly increased after its successful hosting of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

“Anything less [than a boycott] will be seen as an endorsement of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian rule and blatant disregard for civil and human rights,” the groups asserted.