Controversy Over the Winter Olympics
Carla Paz
The upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, China has been shrouded in controversy. Many countries have pulled out of the games in a “diplomatic boycott.” Due to allegations of the genocide of Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group who live in the north-western region of Xinjiang, many countries feel it is not right to participate in the games. One of the countries that decided not to send government officials is the United States. With all this comes the questions of what a “diplomatic boycott” is, what China is doing to the Uyghurs, and whether the US is doing enough in response.
In China, there are about 12 million Uyghurs. They speak a language similar to Turkish and are ethnically and culturally close to the populations of Central Asian countries. The region in which the Uyghurs live, Xinjiang, is autonomous. This means that the region can govern itself, but still experiences major restrictions by the central government. The area is known to produce a fifth of the world’s cotton, a lot of which is via forced Uyghur labor.
Countries such as the US, the Netherlands, the UK, and Canada accuse China of genocide. They report that they are forcibly sterilizing Uyghur women in order to suppress the population, attempting to break cultural traditions, separating families, and holding them in “re-education camps.” Over a million Uyghurs are held against their wills in the camps, and thousands of them are being sentenced to prison terms.
According to leaked documents from China, these camps are being used as high-security prisons that enact strict punishments and discipline. Those who have escaped report China is conducting physical, mental, and sexual torture. In 2017, President Xi Jinping ordered that all those who follow religions in China should be Chinese in orientation, making it obvious that they want to eradicate the Uyghur’s culture and faith. China has banned Muslim religious practices in Xinjiang and destroyed mosques and tombs. The country denies these allegations, saying that they released those who were in “re-education” camps in 2019. Testimonies suggest that many in these camps were relocated to formal prisons. The crackdown in Xinjiang was to “prevent Islamic extremism and terrorism” and the camps were to re-educate the “terrorists,” according to China.
Because the US is among the countries that accuses China of genocide, the government decided to not send US officials to the Olympic games. However, this protest does not impede athletes from participating in the Winter Olympics. The diplomatic boycott really does not affect the games much. According to Zhiqun Zhu, professor of international relations and political science at Bucknell University, the boycott is “more symbolic than substantial.” Before the boycotts were officially announced, China warned of “resolute countermeasures,” which were not specified.
There is more the US could have done to boycott the Winter Olympic When it comes down to it, what matters is if the games would hurt the U.S. financially. In 1980, the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. This resulted in Soviet propaganda due to all the medals they won that year. Symbolic boycotts will amount to nothing unless it would affect China where it hurts: their pockets.
The reason why China isn’t currently worried about the boycott is because none of their sponsors have spoken up or pulled out of the games. If sponsors of the games were to pull out, this would affect China and cause an issue for them. They would have no way of benefiting from the Olympics if sponsors decided to boycott. What also would affect China is if the Olympics committee moved the location of the games. If the IOC did that earlier, China would be greatly devastated. They would no longer have the money coming in from the Olympics and the prestige that comes along with it.
China has said that they “respect” the boycotts. There is much more that corporations and the IOC could have done to show their support for the boycott ,and the Uyghurs who are directly affected. There are over a million victims of this genocide who have been barely recognized by a “diplomatic boycott.” In reality, a diplomatic boycott just means not sending a few government officials. It does not mean fully boycotting the Olympics by not sending any athletes, like in 1980. It goes to show that, to the U.S., not even genocide is enough to fully boycott something as insignificant in the grand scheme of things like the Olympics.
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