Why Are People Boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics?
February 9, 2022
The U.S. and nine other countries are carrying out a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics. It’s a symbolic gesture, but what obligation do regular people have to boycott by not tuning in?
At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, figure skaters sharpen their blades and machine-made snow covers the giant slalom. On the other side of the country, the Chinese government is carrying out what the U.S. State Department has labeled a genocide against Uyghurs, a minority ethnic group.
Since 2017, over one million Uyghurs—a mostly Muslim group living in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China—have been forced into internment camps. They are detained on the basis of “everything from wearing a headscarf or sporting a long beard to having more than two children or traveling overseas for vacation,” The Washington Post reports. Survivors of the camps have reported acts of torture, rape, and forced sterilization. Though China claimed to have closed the camps, in 2020 a BuzzFeed News investigation revealed that the government had built “high-security camps—some capable of housing tens of thousands of people” in which to forcibly house Uyghurs. “Uyghurs are basically having their cultural identity destroyed over time,” Peter Irwin, senior program officer at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), tells Glamour.
But before you come at people for cheering on Nathan Chen and Sara Hector, Irwin says there are other things to consider: “I think we have to step back and think—the only reason we’re calling on individuals and looking at athletes as potential sources of free expression to call out China for what it’s doing is because the International Olympic Committee has done nothing,” Irwin argues. “There has been no pressure put on the Chinese government at all when it comes to what they’re doing to Uhygurs.” He’s critical of corporate sponsors too. Despite the U.S.’s labeling the treatment of Uyghurs a genocide, major corporations like Coca-Cola, Airbnb, and Procter & Gamble are Olympic sponsors this year.
What can we do?
Level one: “It sounds a bit cliché, but read about the situation, inform yourself,” says Irwin. Other easy steps: Talk about it with your friends and family, bring it up on social media, seek out relationships with Uyghur communities in your state.
The next level of action: Contact your elected officials. The Uyghur Human Rights Project recommends asking your member of Congress to support or sponsor the Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act and the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.
The next level: “If there’s something you can do to prevent the atrocities, it’s that China does respond to the economic argument, says Irwin. “If there’s an economic reason to stop doing what they’re doing, then that could be somewhere to press.” Students at the Catholic University of America have pushed their school to move toward divesting from any investment related to Xinjiang. Now students at other schools are calling for their own inquiries. “We’ve seen some momentum on this,” says Irwin.
Read the full article: https://www.glamour.com/story/why-are-people-boycotting-the-2022-winter-olympics