Sen. Mitt Romney calls for diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Olympics

The Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney. Image: Steve Griffin/ Deseret news.

DHARAMSALA, 13 July: The US  Sen. Mitt Romney has said that the US should follow the European Union and adopt a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics in response to the Chinese government’s ongoing human rights abuses.

“This is the right decision. The U.S. should follow suit,” the Utah Republican tweeted on Monday reiterating his push for a US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 winter games in Beijing.

The Senator who ran for US president in the 2008 and 2012 presidential primaries called for an economic and diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in March earlier this year over China’s human rights abuses, including the forced sterilization of Uyghur women and adults being sent to forced labour and concentration camps, noted a report on KSL.com.

The report quoted the senator as saying in March: “among ethnic Chinese, access to uncensored broadcast news and social media is prohibited. Citizens are surveyed, spied upon, and penalized for attending religious services or expressing dissent.”

Last week, the European Parliament overwhelming voted on a resolution calling for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over continuing human rights abuses by the Chinese government.

According to a report on Guardian, the 28-point resolution passed by the European Parliament which acts as the European Union’s legislative branch called for EU officials and member states to decline all government and diplomatic invitations to the 2022 Winter Olympics “unless the Chinese government demonstrates a verifiable improvement in the human rights situation in Hong Kong, the Xinjiang Uyghur region, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and elsewhere in China.”

Additionally, in May, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi also called for a global diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on human rights grounds.

Meanwhile, calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Games in Beijing, a motion titled ‘Beijing Winter Olympics and Chinese government sanctions’ will be debated in the UK Parliament on 15 July led by the Tory MP Tim Loughton who is also the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet.

Former US ambassador to United Nations, Nikki Haley also called on the US to take stronger action against China, starting with organizing a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing with allies like India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Canada, The Hill quoted potential 2024 GOP (another name for the Republican Party — Grand Old Party) presidential hopeful Haley as saying at a closed-door meeting with members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC).

The Indian-American Republican politician, who has previously declared China as the US’ “absolute number one” national security threat has authored an op-ed earlier in March calling on President Joe Biden to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party and boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The Games are scheduled to begin on 4 Feb next year, but calls to boycott it continues to get steam.

Leading Tibetan NGOs along with a coalition of 180 rights groups across the world representing Tibet, Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hongkonger, Taiwanese, and Chinese people, along with other international human rights organizations declared that hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, legitimizes China’s human rights abuses as they called on governments around the world to boycott the Olympics after their plea to the IOC to move the games fell before deaf ears in February.

The Tibetan parliament in exile unanimously approved a resolution at its 10th session on the 18th of March calling on the Tibetan cabinet, the parliament as well as all governmental and non-governmental Tibetan entities to launch a worldwide campaign of protests against the Beijing Olympics.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *