Urging an international boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, two Tibetan students have chained themselves to the Olympic rings in front of the Swiss headquarters of the International Olympic Committee.
Their protest comes after the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK said it would not send government officials to attend the Games, citing China’s human rights “atrocities” .
The activists demanded that countries withdraw from the event, calling it the “Genocide Games”.
Students for Free Tibet said the protest was due to China’s “sportswashing of genocide and crimes against humanity and IOC President Thomas Bach’s failure to uphold the human rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, and Southern Mongolians”.
Tenzing Dhokhar, Campaigns Director of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe, said, “Despite mounting international criticism of the IOC and China, the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses in Tibet, East Turkestan, and Hong Kong continue unabated. By collaborating with China, the IOC is making itself an accomplice of the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes, which will be sports-washed by the Beijing Olympics. Tibetans demand a boycott of Beijing 2022!”
Tenzin Kunchok, 24-year old Tibetan student activist, said the IOC has failed human rights.
“To allow China to host the Olympic Games despite the CCP’s violence against women, ranging from the silencing of Peng Shuai, to the use of rape as a form of torture against Uyghur women, or the religious persecution of countless Tibetan nuns, the IOC has declared that the CCP’s treatment of women is acceptable. As a woman, I am horrified to see the CCP not only ignore Peng Shuai’s story but even contribute to her pain by silencing her. We ask the world to support Peng Shuai as well as the countless other women who are currently being silenced by the CCP by boycotting Beijing 2022.”
In October, Tibetan activists unfurled a banner saying “no genocide” and a Tibetan flag during the flame-lighting ceremony for the Winter Olympics.
China has dismissed international boycotts of the Games, saying they don’t matter as the officials were not invited and no one would care whether they come or not.
The IOC president said the boycotts were “purely political” and has sidestepped questions about China’s human rights issues.
