Boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics

As many of you know, the 2022 Winter Olympics began yesterday. The Olympics are being held in Beijing, China. Stop The Demand Project began an awareness campaign against the Chinese Communist Party for their human rights abuses. I, along with many others, have been sharing with friends, family, and followers that they should boycott the Olympics. Now, I'd like to share with my readers the need for boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics. The CCP is trying to sportswash their crimes through the Winter Olympics.

"Sportswashing" refers to an oppressive government using sports to cover up their crimes against humanity. Amnesty International's researcher for China, Alkan Akad, stated, "The Beijing Winter Olympics must not be allowed to pass as a mere sportswashing opportunity for the Chinese authorities and the international community must not become complicit in a propaganda exercise." He continues, "The world must heed the lessons of the Beijing 2008 Games, when Chinese government promises of human rights improvements never materialized."

As mentioned previously, the CCP is responsible for dozens of human rights abuses. Despite these allegations being proven true, the CCP refuses to accept responsibility for their actions, nor receives any penalty for their crimes by the rest of the world. Numerous politicians have defended the CCP (shocker!), and told American athletes to "hold their tongue" on speaking out against the CCP's crimes. In a previous guest article, NBC announced no reporter would be in attendance. Now, you'd think this is an incredible move, and assume that it's due to the crimes from the CCP. NOPE! It's because of the risk of COVID.  It's absolutely atrocious, but not shocking at all. The media and 90% of the Establishment bend over backwards for the CCP, but that's a discussion for another day. 

What crimes is the CCP guilty of? 

Mistreatment of Uyghur prisoners

Uyghur refers to the second-largest predominantly Muslim ethnicity in China. These people have been thrown into prisons, where they are given horrible treatment. From forced labor camps to organ harvesting to rape to sexual violence, the worst treatments you can think of is currently happening to the Uyghur prisoners. Dr. Erkin Sidick, a Uyghur American and President of the Uyghur Projects Foundation, claims that the number of Uyghurs murdered by the CCP could exceed the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. "This isn’t indoctrination, it’s eradication," Dr. Sidick shares. Regarding the statement, we do not have the numbers to prove this, which is why I did not state this as fact. Nonetheless, we cannot stay silent on these crimes. This doesn't only refer to Uyghurs. Christians, Tibetans, and other religious groups receive the same treatment. What does the CCP say about the treatment of Uyghurs? That they are in reeducation or vocational camps. Uyghurs, Christians, and other ethnic or religious groups are forced to denounce their faiths, language, and culture, or be imprisoned and tortured. 

The one that really got me was organ harvesting. Why the United Nations hasn't done anything is beyond me. Their own experts found that China was forcefully harvesting organs from "specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention, often without being explained the reasons for arrest or given arrest warrants, at different locations." 

Restriction of free speech

Athletes are not allowed to speak out against the Uyghur genocide. Journalists are forced to remain in a tight bubble, and are limited on who they can speak with and what they can say. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech doesn't exist in China. You receive harsh punishment for speaking out against the CCP.

Population control/forced abortion

The U.S. State Department outlined how the CCP enforces population control through forced abortion, forced sterilization, and forced implantation of birth control. Uyghur escapees have described how the CCP forced them into abortion, sterilization, and other horrible acts. One witness, Rozi, shared that Chinese authorities rounded up her and other pregnant women, and forced them to abort. "I was 6.5 months pregnant. The police came, one Uyghur and two Chinese. They put me and eight other pregnant women in cars and took us to the hospital," Rozi told AP News.  "They first gave me a pill and said to take it. So I did. I didn’t know what it was. Half an hour later, they put a needle in my belly. And sometime after that I lost my child," she continued. 

One obstetrician described going from house to house with an ultrasound machine, to check if the women of the household were pregnant. If the household had more than the allowed number, authorities would "raze and destroy the home." 

Regarding birth control, here are some slogans in different areas, shared by Chen Guangcheng, senior fellow at Catholic University of America, who wrote the article:

• Yunnan: "All villagers will be sterilized once a single villager violates the birth quota."
• Jiangsu: "We’d rather see a river of blood than a single baby born alive."
• Guangxi: "An IUD must be secured after the first birth; sterilization must follow the second; the third and fourth must be killed."

Birth control is terrifying in China. IUDs are forcefully implanted in women, and refusal can cause numerous issues for the family (i.e. homes being destroyed, livestock being taken). Guangcheng shares, "During a six-month period of 2005, more than 130,000 forced abortions and/or sterilizations took place in Linyi city ALONE." It can only be assumed that these numbers have worsened in recent years.

Join me in boycotting the Winter Olympics

What I've described is horrendous. China is one of the biggest countries responsible for numerous human rights abuses. Hosting the Olympics shouldn't distract anyone from recognizing these crimes. Join me in boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics because we cannot support a government that is actively torturing and trafficking their own citizens. 

Graphics came from Stop The Demand Project