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In a briefing this week, Press Secretary Jen Psaki cited “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses” in the administration’s decision to send a message of disapproval to the Chinese government.
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Though the boycott is largely symbolic given the participation of athletes and extensive global media coverage planned for the weeks-long event, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian reacted, calling the move an “outright political provocation” and warned of consequences.
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Human Rights Watch reportsthat up to a million people from the province have been sent to prisons, detention centers and “political education” camps, where they many endure long sentences, torture, hard labor and political and cultural indoctrination.
The lessons forced on people in the education camps amount to “permanent brainwashing” and “forced cultural assimilation,” according to a Uyghur woman, who had been detained for two years but now lives in France,ABC News reported in 2021.
Gulbahar Haitiwaji wrote a book with a French journalist about life inside a re-education camp near the city of Karamay. InSurvivor of the Chinese Gulag, she described spending long days in windowless rooms, where students were required to praise Chinese President Xi Jinping repeatedly and taught a glorified version of Chinese history.
She wrote that she was once chained to a bed for 20 days while detained and had to hide from surveillance cameras when she prayed.
Haitiwaji also claimed detainees where she was held were forced to exercise to the point of exhaustion. “Sometimes, some pass out,” she wrote in the book, ABC News reported. “If a prisoner remains unconscious despite the cries of the guards, one of them comes to pick her up unceremoniously with a pair of slaps.”
The Chinese Embassy in France called Haitiwaji’s story a fabrication and claimed she had been engaged in in separatist and terrorist activities.
In December, President Bidensigned a lawto ban imports from Xinjiang and allows for sanctions on individuals taking advantage of forced labor there.
“This new law gives the U.S. government new tools to prevent goods made with forced labor in Xinjiang from entering U.S. markets and to further promote accountability for persons and entities responsible for these abuses,” Secretary of State Antony Blinkensaid in a statement, referring to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
“We will continue doing everything we can to restore the dignity of those who yearn to be free from forced labor. We call on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately end genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” Blinken added then.
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Human Rights Watch also criticized the “prosecution of people exercising rights to free expression, peaceful assembly, and association on behalf of vulnerable populations” elsewhere — like in Taiwan and Tibet — while pointing out religious groups and journalists who’ve been targeted in crackdowns.
The IOC hasremained mostly silenton the subject of human rights violations in its host nation.
The committee’s head of human rights sent an email to the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region. “While the IOC will continue strengthening its work in relation to labor rights,” the email reportedly said, “we regret to conclude that your organization and the IOC will not be able to engage in a dialogue this time as a result of differences in approach, including regarding scope, process and confidentiality.”
Beijing Winter Olympics.Wang Xin/VCG via Getty
In December, just before the U.S. announced its diplomatic boycott, IOC President Thomas Bach gave an interview with German news agency DPA.
source: people.com
