Feb. 4, 2021 - Epoch Times
05:23
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| U.S. Senator Rick Scott and six other Republican senators have introduced a resolution calling on the International Olympic Committee, IOC, to move the 2022 Winter Olympics out of China due to human rights violations in the country. | |
| If China fails to demonstrate significant progress in securing fundamental human rights, including the freedoms of religion, speech, movement, association, and assembly, the IOC should rebid the 2022 Winter Olympics and let the Games be hosted by a country that recognizes and respects human rights, the resolution stated. | |
| Beijing was selected as the host city for the 2022 Games in July 2015. | |
| When Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008, many rights groups also criticized the IOC's decision to allow China to host. | |
| Communist China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, restricting the human rights of Hong Kongers, and threatening Taiwan. | |
| Communist China should not be allowed to host the 2022 Olympic Games while simultaneously running concentration camps, violating human rights, and systematically oppressing the people of Hong Kong, Scott stated in a February 2 press release from his office. | |
| Beijing has detained more than one million ethnic Muslims in internment camps in China's far western Xinjiang region. | |
| Beijing claims these camps are vocational training centers. | |
| Last month, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the Chinese regime's persecution of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities as genocide and crimes against humanity. | |
| On February 2nd, the Interparliamentary Alliance on China, IPAC, a group of international lawmakers issued a statement calling for an international legal investigation into human rights violations in Xinjiang in response to a BBC report of Chinese men engaging in mass rape, sexual abuse, and torture against women in Xinjiang internment camps. | |
| The time for mere words has long passed. | |
| We must now move towards a coordinated effort to hold the Chinese government to account. | |
| These atrocities must be stopped, IPAC stated. | |
| In Hong Kong, Beijing has implemented a draconian national security law that allows the authorities to prosecute pro-democracy activists under the charges of subversion and secession. | |
| According to the Hong Kong police, at least 97 people have been arrested under the law as of Tuesday. | |
| U.S. Senator Rick Scott said, The Olympic Games are an incredible opportunity to allow the world's best athletes to represent their countries and unite our nations, and under no circumstance should be hosted by one of the world's worst human rights abusers. | |
| I am proud to lead my colleagues to send a clear message to the IOC. Stand up for freedom and urge Communist China to do the right thing, or find a new home for the 2022 Olympic Games. | |
| The resolution was sponsored by Marsha Blackburn, representative from Tennessee, Mike Braun and Todd Young, representatives from Indiana, Tom Cotton, representative from Arkansas, Jim Inhoof, representative from Oklahoma, and Marco Rubio, representative from Florida. | |
| These lawmakers introduced a similar resolution in March last year. | |
| It is insane that a country actively involved in egregious human rights abuses that amount to genocide would have the privilege of hosting the Olympics or any other international sporting event, Rubio said in the statement. | |
| International human rights groups have also voiced concerns about Beijing hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. | |
| On February 2nd, a coalition of over 180 groups signed a joint letter to world leaders, urging governments to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. | |
| 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, the letter stated. | |
| Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter on January 30th, Remember when people argued that holding the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing would help to mitigate China's repression? | |
| It didn't. | |
| Things are far worse today, but Beijing now plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics despite Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, etc. | |
| In September 2020, more than 160 human rights groups also sent a letter to IOC President Thomas Bach asking him to reverse its mistake. | |
| In choosing Beijing to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics, during a daily briefing on Tuesday when reporters asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the new administration's stance on calls to boycott the 2022 Olympics, she said Washington did not have any change of our approach to the Beijing Olympics. | |
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