(TibetanReview.net, Jul16’21) – While a coalition representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong and others has been persuading participating nations to completely boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics without much success, a campaign for a less damning action urging a diplomatic boycott has been gaining traction.
On Jul 16 morning, the British Parliament voted unanimously to boycott what is being called the “Genocide Games,” joining a list of parliaments of several other Western democracies that have called for a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
Highlighting China’s atrocities on Uyghurs Muslims in Chinese-ruled Xinjiang, the resolution argued that the event be not held in a “country whose government is credibly accused of mass atrocity crimes”.
The 28-point resolution, which is non-binding, called on the British government to not send any representatives to the 2022 Winter Olympics, be it members of the royal family, diplomats or any other VIPs.
The UK should decline invitations for its representatives to attend the Winter Olympics unless the Chinese government “ends the atrocities” on the ethnic population in the Xinjiang region, the resolution said.
The motion was brought by Conservative MP Tim Loughton who is also a member of the global Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. IPAC was formed by MPs around the world as a result, most recently, of Beijing’s economic bullying of Australia.
China while denying the allegations of genocide has criticized what it called “the politicization of sports”. Its foreign ministry has said any boycott call was “doomed to failure.”
Lawmakers in the European Parliament (Jul 8), USA, Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic have previously passed similar resolutions.
However, it remains unclear how many will actually heed the boycott call, given the level of China’s sensitivity over it. It has already been reported that the US diplomatic team to the Olympics will be led by the First Lady Jill Biden.
