How Museums in Central and Eastern Europe Tell the Complicated Story of Life Behind the Iron Curtain
Apr 24
Why is the CCP being awarded with the Winter Olympics while they are committing genocide?
WASHINGTON D.C.— As the world gears up for the 2022 Winter Olympic games, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shows no sign of stopping its genocide against Uyghurs and other indigenous peoples in Xinjiang. Rather, Beijing has answered international condemnation by sanctioning Western politicians, suing researchers, and spewing disinformation. In response to the CCP’s actions, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is joining with human rights organizations from around the world to call on the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to move the 2022 Olympic games out of China.
The Olympic Charter states that the goal of Olympism “is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” The Communist Party of China has not only proven beyond all reasonable doubt that it is unwilling to live up to these lofty ideals, but actively works to undermine them.
The Olympic games are the world’s preeminent sporting competition. Not only is it an honor to be chosen as the host city but also an immense source of worldwide media coverage and tourist dollars. By allowing Beijing to host the games, the free world risks legitimizing the CCP’ rule while the regime is committing genocide 1,600 miles away in Xinjiang. Anything less than moving the games out of China will be an affront to the victims and a signal to the CCP that the free world intends to stand idle in the face of genocide. We call on the sponsors of the games, namely Airbnb, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Intel, and Visa to divest from the games to show their commitment to basic human dignity.
The CCP has resolved to shatter and remake the indigenous peoples in Xinjiang using a variety of draconian measures. The regime has repressed local cultures by disappearing intellectuals and subjecting children to indoctrination in boarding schools. Many religious practices have been outlawed, with adherents subject to extra-judicial detention while houses of worship are either destroyed or remade. Finally, Beijing has taken steps to reduce the population of indigenous peoples in their own homeland by subjecting women to forced abortions and sterilizations and others to forced rendition to forced labor schemes far from their homeland.
“We cannot stand by and allow Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics while the CCP is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. The IOC is morally responsible for ensuring the Games are moved out of China,” said VOC President and CEO Ambassador Andrew Bremberg. “The free world must ensure the CCP is held accountable for their horrific crimes against humanity.”
It was VOC Senior Research Fellow Dr. Adrian Zenz whose 2020 report findings provided the strongest evidence yet that Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang meet one of the genocide criteria cited in the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
During a June 2020 appearance on France 24, VOC Senior Research Fellow in China Studies Dr. Adrian Zenz warned that “Beijing is now moving into territory that meets very clearly one of the five criteria for genocide set out by the United Nations…Therefore we now need to reevaluate the situation because Beijing’s practices in Xinjiang are partially moving into a territory of committing actual genocide.”
Since then, the U.S. Department of State under two administrations has recognized Beijing’s actions for what they are: genocide. In addition, the parliaments of Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the UK have passed resolutions recognizing the atrocities as either genocide or sever human rights abuses with similar resolutions being considered in legislatures around the world.
The IOC has the obligation and responsibility to move the 2022 Olympic games out of Beijing. It is unacceptable to ask Olympic athletes to have to choose between competing on soil where they know genocide is being committed 1,600 miles away and sacrificing a lifetime of preparation by not competing at all out of moral obligation to the victims of the CCP’s genocide. The decision should not be put on the athletes. The decision is that of the IOC and they will be held morally responsible if they choose to do nothing.
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is an educational, research, and human rights bipartisan nonprofit devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of the more than 1.5 billion people still living under communist regimes.
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