Over the weekend, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach warned against boycotts of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. Bach has to do this because he’s running for reelection, and because the IOC sold its soul to China in exchange for royal treatment at the 2022 Games.
There were other options to host the 2022 Games. Kazakhstan fell just short of landing them. The clear front-runner was Norway, but it pulled out after being presented with a list of ridiculous demands from the IOC. The demands included meetings with the king, cocktail receptions on Norway’s dime, and the creation of separate lanes for all roads that IOC members would travel on. Bach also had to be “welcomed ceremoniously” on the runway when he arrived for the games.
The IOC then chided Norway for a “missed opportunity” before handing hosting duties to China. Bach now has the gall to describe a boycott based on China’s laundry list of human rights abuses as “boycotts and discrimination because of political background or nationality.”
In this case, the “political background” Bach is referring to is sterilizations and abortions forced on the Uighur Muslims in China by the Chinese Communist Party. Since 2017, around 2 million Uighurs have been forced into detention camps where they are tortured by camp guards. “Political background” is also China’s subjugation of 7 million people in Hong Kong, 3 million in Tibet, and its overt planning to do the same to 23 million more in Taiwan.
If Bach didn’t want to risk boycotts, perhaps the IOC should have considered that during the bidding process. It’s not like China was a shining beacon of human rights back in 2015, when it was first selected to host. Now, due to their desire to be treated like royalty, Bach and his lackeys must do everything they can to avoid a boycott while the coronavirus, loosed by China on the world, of course, jeopardizes their rescheduled Tokyo Games.
The 1936 “Nazi Games” in Berlin are still a lasting stain on the Olympic image, even though the event had been scheduled before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The IOC in recent years has debased itself further by giving totalitarians the right to hold the games, with Russia hosting in 2014 (right afterward, Putin invaded Ukraine) and China serving as host to the Olympics in 2008 and the Youth Olympics in 2014.
The 2022 Olympics in Beijing should be boycotted, as much as that may hurt to the athletes who have worked for the opportunity. The world, and particularly Western countries that pride themselves on their concern for human rights, needs to stop looking the other way when it comes to China’s human rights abuses.
