By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, May 19: The US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called for a “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing at a bipartisan congressional hearing, urging the US government and world leaders to refrain from attending the games on the grounds of ‘moral authority’. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson called Pelosi’s remarks to be full of “lies and disinformation” on Wednesday, and claimed that human rights were developing vigorously in China.
US lawmakers have been vocal about a possible Olympic boycott or venue change, and have increasingly criticized American corporations for backing Chinese genocide through their sponsorship of the games. Speaker Pelosi, a Democrat, told the congressional hearing why heads of state should shun the games, “For heads of state to go to China in light of a genocide that is ongoing – while you’re sitting there in your seat – really begs the question: what moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world?”
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded to the comments, “Some US individuals’ remarks are full of lies and disinformation,” further adding that “US politicians should stop using the Olympic movement to play despicable political games” or using “the so-called human rights issue as a pretext to smear and slander China”, he remarked.
The Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu has said earlier that US’s attempts to sabotage the Olympic in China were doomed to fail, “I wonder what makes some U.S. politicians think they actually have the so-called moral authority? On human rights issues, they are in no position, either historically or currently, to make wanton groundless criticism against China.”
Republican Congressman Chris Smith who led the hearing said that corporate sponsors should be called to testify before Congress, “Big business wants to make lots of money, and it doesn’t seem to matter what cruelty – even genocide – that the host nation commits.” Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern added that the games should be postponed so that the International Olympic Committee has the time to “relocate to a country whose government is not committing atrocities.”
The primary reason Pelosi and others supported the boycott was to protest China’s human rights abuses, particularly against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, as well as crackdowns on democracy activists in Hong Kong and Tibet.