‘This isn’t about politics; this is about human rights…’
(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from China unless the government affirms the “basic rights” of the Chinese people.
“The communist government is denying basic rights to the people of Hong Kong, cracking down on protesters, journalists, and dissidents, holding 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps because of their religion, and continuing to lie about the spread of the coronavirus,” Scott wrote op-ed for the Washington Examiner.
He said the Chinese Communist Party’s actions conflicted with the Olympics’s mission of “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity” and encouraging “a way of life based on … social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
Several GOP senators are demanding further scrutiny and accountability for the cover-up of the coronavirus, believed to have been transmitted by a bat, which first emerged from a Chinese wet market.
China’s refusal to acknowledge the rapid spread of the virus cost nations around the world several weeks—if not months—of valuable preparation time.
Scott also has called for the United Nations-backed World Health Organization to be investigated for lending credence to the Chinese propaganda and initially downplaying concerns over the health crisis.
But even before the world learned about Chinese officials’ role in suppressing information about the pandemic threat, Scott had written to the IOC about the country’s substantial human rights abuses toward its own citizens.
“If Communist China continues breaking promises, violating human rights, and oppressing the people of Hong Kong, then Beijing should not be allowed to host the 2022 Winter Olympics,” Scott wrote to IOC President Thomas Bach in October 2019.
Bach responded in November.
He said the mission of the Olympic Games and the IOC is “to unite the entire world in peaceful competition. To achieve this, we must remain strictly politically neutral.”
In the latest op-ed, Scott wrote, “That answer is unacceptable. This isn’t about politics; this is about human rights.”
He also added several other examples to the growing list of Chinese abuses.
“I stand with the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong, the historically persecuted people of Tibet, peaceful communities of Chinese Muslims including Uighurs, Falun Gong, and the journalists and political dissidents in China,” he wrote.
“I hope every freedom-loving country joins us in demanding that the IOC rebid the 2022 Olympic Games should China fail to abandon its indefensible course,” he added.