Remarks of Bennett Freeman at the #NoBeijing2022 Rally at the U.S. Capitol
February 3, 2022
Thanks to the organizers for bringing us together and it is an honor to address this rally. We come here today in this cold rain in front of the U.S. Capitol to send a clear, united message:
The world will be watching as courageous athletes boycott the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing just hours from now. Over the next two weeks, we will bear witness to the crimes against humanity that these Beijing Winter Olympics will showcase alongside athletic competition.
Those crimes against humanity are so severe and pervasive against the Uyghur and other Turkic people in western China that the U.S. Government has been compelled to characterize the cumulative horror as “genocide.” We know the truth, we know the facts: the political prisoners taken from their families; the mass incarceration of tens of thousands; invasive surveillance; the suppression of Muslim religious worship and the cultural desecration of the Uyghur people; even, grotesquely, the forced sterilization of women.
Then there is forced labor—massive and coercive—of Uyghurs mobilized to pick cotton and to assemble solar panels. Low tech or high tech, forced labor is forced labor. It remains all too tangible when we hoped it would be unimaginable by the third decade of the 21st century.
I work with the Cotton Campaign as well as with the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region—a coalition of several hundred labor rights, human rights and Uyghur groups—to expose and eliminate this contemporary horror.
The Coalition worked with members of both parties in both houses of the U.S. Congress— together with the Biden Administration—to support the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and now its enactment into law. Now the task is to move forward with its full and swift implementation to ensure that products made with the forced labor of Uyghur people is not imported into the United States, with certain penalties imposed on companies who may dare otherwise.
At the same time, both during and after the Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee must be held to account for failing to provide credible assurances that Olympic-branded merchandise is not tainted by the blood and sweat of Uyghur people.
The IOC refused to engage the Coalition in the substantive, constructive and respectful two-way dialogue that it sought for eight months last year. Instead, the Coalition’s patience and persistence was met with arrogance and intransigence on the part of the IOC. Incredibly, the IOC refused to engage the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region—on forced labor in the Uyghur region!
Two weeks ago, the IOC released the findings of its so-called “due diligence” that claimed to find no forced labor in the Olympic-branded products made by two of its many suppliers: Anta Sports and HYX Group. Those findings focused on only two IOC suppliers and failed to disclose the identity of the third-party auditor that conducted the assessment nor the methodology that auditor applied.
Let us be clear: without transparency and accountability, there is no credibility. And let the world beware: the Beijing Winter Olympics are further tarnished by the risk of forced Uyghur labor in Olympic-branded merchandise that may be worn or sold with the five-ring Olympic brand.
Several hours ago, at a press conference in Beijing, IOC President Thomas Bach refused to address issues related to the Uyghurs. He offered the excuse of “political neutrality” not to comment on these crimes against humanity.
Mr. Bach, your neutrality collides with morality and morality lost. Human rights are not neutral; they are universal. Your icy indifference to human rights is chilling.
Beijing 2022 will live in infamy.