News and Views on Tibet

Activists across the globe call for boycott of 2022 Beijing Olympics

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Global Day Action observed in Canberra, Australia on Wednesday (Photo/Australia Tibet Council)

By Choekyi Lhamo

DHARAMSHALA, June 23: Tibetan, Uyghur, Taiwanese, Hong Konger, South Mongolian, and Chinese activists across the globe on Wednesday observed the ‘Global Day of Action’ to boycott the upcoming controversial Beijing winter Olympics scheduled for February next year. The campaign which was kicked off in Australia also saw campaigns in Japan, several European countries and across the Americas with demonstrations, banner drops and digital actions being coordinated by international support groups.

India-based Tibetan NGOs and support groups today sent a letter to the India Olympic Association calling for re-evaluation of its participation in the Games, due to China’s encroachment on the Indian border with Tibet that threatens the country’s security.

“With IOC’s refusal to act – despite the overwhelming evidence – it falls to National Olympic Associations to take a meaningful and robust stance and we are calling on the Indian Olympic Association to take robust action. The most impactful and bravest course of action would be a boycott of the 2022 Winter Games, accompanied by a public statement that the Indian Olympic Association cannot genuinely uphold the Olympic Charter in good faith while sending a team to the Games,” the statement read.

Banner drop by activists in London on Wednesday (Photo- Free Tibet)

Noted human rights organizations also released a statement demanding US-based Mars Global to drop their Beijing 2022 sponsorship. “According to Freedom House, Tibet is the least free place on Earth, tied only with Syria and the US government itself has confirmed that there is an ongoing genocide of Uyghurs. This is not a moral ambiguity, the answer is very clear: Mars Global must immediately discontinue their sponsorship for the CCP’s Genocide Games or forever tarnish their reputation as a socially responsible company,” said Tenzing Barshee, President of the Capital Area Tibetan Association, along with representatives of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), We The Hongkonergs, and Campaign for Uyghurs.

International Olympic Day on June 23 is observed every year to embrace Olympian values, and to celebrate the establishment of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC has come under criticism for being complicit in China’s human rights repression as prominent leaders from the West called for a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics in the past months.

One Response

  1. Confuscius says, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” kinda?

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