Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday (local time) backed growing calls for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics next year over human rights issues in China.
“The CCP has disappeared reporters writing about Wuhan virus, docs telling the truth about CCP labs, a prof tennis player, Uighurs, Hong Kongers & the head of Interpol. Let’s disappear the Olympics from them and hold it in a place the world can be proud of. #BoycottBeijingOlympics,” Pompeo tweeted.
This comes a few days after US President Joe Biden said that his administration was considering a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Asked about the possibility of the boycott during an Oval Office meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, Biden responded that it was “something we are considering”, NBC News reported.
The White House usually sends a delegation to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics but under a diplomatic boycott, they would not send the delegation. However, athletes from the US would still attend the event.
Apart from US, the UK is also considering the boycott over the alleged human rights violations in China, according to UK media reports. As per reports, the UK government is actively discussing the possibility to refrain from sending officials to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss believed to be a supporter of the idea.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week said that the Chinese government frequently forcibly disappears individuals whose views or conduct it sees as problematic or embarrassing, employs extralegal forms of detention, and publishes forced confessions to make dubious cases appear legitimate. From Nobel Peace Prize laureates to Hong Kong publishers to Interpol chiefs, Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to silence critics, the rights group said.
Moreover, human rights activists have raised their voices against China’s detention of Uyghur people in Xinjiang province and crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
