Why Calls Are Mounting for a Boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics
In his two-decade career, Chinese sports journalist and commentator Yan Qiang has had the good fortune to cover five Olympic Games, including the 2008 Beijing Games in his homeland. But there is one of them that is easily his favorite.
“Sydney 2000 was the perfect one,” he tells TIME. “Because there wasn’t too much political interference and people uptight about all kinds of stuff. So the sport was quite pure in Sydney.”
Many athletes and sports fans will sympathize, especially now that the Beijing Winter Games, slated to begin next February, are facing growing calls for a boycott over human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese government.
The body of evidence detailing persecution of Uighur Muslims and other minorities in China is now irrefutable, with the leak of the China Cables in November 2019 revealing sweeping extrajudicial detention and surveillance in westernmost Xinjiang province. Since then, the controversy has deepened amid allegations of the forced sterilization of detained women.
Last month, a coalition of 180 rights groups called for a boycott of Beijing 2022 because of these abuses, the erosion of politica…
Continue Reading