I love the Olympics. I especially love the Winter Olympics. Alpine Skiing and Figure Skating are a couple favorites, and then there's total badass sports like Biathlon and Skeleton that are a lot of fun too. I also really enjoying watching Curling now that I understand the rules. But this year I won't be watching or (besides this) spending any time on it. Though this was really conflicting for me, I just can't support the competition in China considering what's going on there. I think our country should've gone beyond the diplomatic boycott, as much as that would've crushed our athletes, and skipped the games entirely.
China is a huge country, obviously, and is not monolithic racially, even if it may seem so to us. Over 90% of China's population is indeed made up of the dominant 'Han Chinese' people, the group you think of when considering the country. But that still leaves close to 10% minorities. One of these is the Uyghurs, a Turkic mostly Muslim people who make up less than 1% of China's overall population and live in the northwest Xinjiang region. Percentage may not be the best way to quantify this so let's try something else. There are, by China's count in 2020, over 11 million Uyghurs. And they are not being treated well by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
In the past 10 years, China has more or less been attempting to eradicate the Uyghurs, at least as a culture. Utilizing a large-scale surveillance system the government is restricting most aspects of living as a Muslim, from owning prayer rugs to growing a beard and more. Religious sites are being destroyed in the region. Hundred of thousands, even millions, of Uyghurs are being sent to internment and work camps, coined 're-education camps,' to be indoctrinated in Chinese Communist dogma. There's ongoing sterilization and other systematic implementations of birth control to prevent the Uyghurs from having children. All this activity appears to be accelerating over the past few years. Some have been calling this a genocide (the Trump Administration did last year) and, though it doesn't appear the Uyghurs are being killed en masse, it is clear the CCP is attempting to purposefully expunge a people as they currently exist. They deny all such claims, of course. This has been a growing story and one you've probably heard. You may wonder what we can do about it.
Well, simply put, we could have used the timing of the 2022 Olympics, hosted in Beijing, to call greater attention to what's happening there. Outright boycotts of Olympic Games are something that's been done before, including by the U.S. in 1980, in order to make a political point. What better reason could there be to take a stand like that again? The Biden Administration is doing a 'diplomatic boycott,' citing the treatment of the Uyghurs as the reason, and not sending an official delegation. That's a good thing but only a half-measure in reality. Some media members have used this moment to do some good reporting and must be given credit, like CNN's Jake Tapper. Here's an example:
As a freedom-loving American, it not only infuriates me that we're sending our athletes into the the country that's actively committing genocide, but we're telling them not to comment on it. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi directly discouraged protests by American athletes of any kind during the Opening Ceremonies, which is always a celebration of the host nation, largely for fear of retaliation. Yes, the Chinese government is 'ruthless' and evil and that's the point. Look at what they're doing to people that live within their own borders. If we need to instruct Americans to shut up and be quiet, it may not be wise to send them at all.
So that's what I think the United States should have done, skip the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing entirely. It was likely the best opportunity we'll have to put a giant spotlight on the atrocities being committed in Xinjiang and now it's passed by. China is a political and economic powerhouse and an incredibly scary potential enemy. But if we're going to say things like 'Never again' we need to mean it. A boycott shouldn't have even been a hard step to take. Apparently I'm far from the only one thinking this as ratings for these Games are about half of what they were four years ago, a precipitous fall.
This pains me a little, actually maybe more than a little. I want to support our men and women competing, especially the Gophers on the men's hockey team. I want to chant USA! USA! USA! But I won't be watching. Reading about this stuff and writing this has only hardened my stance, and I haven't even mentioned any of the other scary realities that stem from the Chinese government, like covering up the start of Covid or increasing aggression toward Taiwan (topics for another day). Best of luck Team America, I'll catch you in 2024.
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