Activists urge athletes to speak out at Beijing Olympics
Source: AP
BEIJING (AP) — Human rights activists issued a call to action against the Beijing Olympics on Friday, imploring athletes and sponsors to speak out against what they call the “genocide games.”
Speaking at an online press conference organized by the rights group Human Rights Watch, activists representing Chinese dissidents and the minority Uyghur and Tibetan populations urged international attendants to voice their opposition to China’s hosting of the Games, which begin next week.
“The 2022 Winter Olympics will be remembered as the genocide games,” said Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.
“The CCP’s purpose is to exactly turn the sports arena into a stage for political legitimacy and a tool to whitewash all those atrocities,” he added, referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
FILE - Human right groups gather on the United Nations international Human Rights Day, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, to call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 in front of the Bank of China building in Taipei, Taiwan. Human rights activists issued a call to action against the Beijing Olympics on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022 imploring athletes and sponsors to speak out against what they call the "genocide games." (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-sports-beijing-xi-jinping-2020-tokyo-olympics-879330e41869afcc81bfd5473fca56e7
