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A group of politicians across Europe and North America have launched coordinated legislative actions, SCMP reports, calling for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Spanning 11 countries and parliaments, the actions aim to pressure governments, elected officials and heads of state to decline invitations to next year’s Games, citing “gross violations of human rights” by the Chinese government.
In the US, a resolution supported by the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, Gregory Meeks, calls for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to instigate emergency measures to find a replacement venue, “given ongoing crimes against humanity committed by the host government”. At the European Parliament, 10 members will submit a parliamentary question to the European Council asking whether the EU should send a delegation to the Games, but also to “issue advice” to European corporate sponsors of the event. In Italy, a motion calls for broadcasters to devote programming time to coverage of human rights issues in China, while a Swiss lawmaker’s interpellation to its Federal Council will ask for guarantees to be sought on press freedoms for media covering the Games.
Similar motions have been introduced in Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden, with the campaign driven by the hawkish Interparliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a group pushing for hardline action on China from the West since last year.
There has been no official comment from China but Beijing has previously lashed out at threats to boycott the Games. What would India do? In any case, it has zero participation in winter games. But going by its silence on Uighurs and Tibet, New Delhi is likely to look the other way.