Across the world, over 240 non-profit organizations, which include Christian groups, have come together to rally against the corporate sponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Such companies that are being criticized are global names such as Visa, Coca-Cola, Intel, and AirBnb, which activists believe their sponsorship of the Olympics in China "creates or contributes to human rights violations."
In a joint statement released by up to 243 non-governmental organizations through Human Rights Watch, the Beijing Winter Olympics that will begin on February 4 will do so "amid atrocity crimes and other grave human rights violations by the Chinese government." The organizations called for governments to join a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics and called upon athletes and sponsors to not legitimize the government abuses in China.
Among the 243 non-profit groups are Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights organization that specializes in religious freedom; ChinaAid, an international non-profit Christian human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom in China; and Religious Freedom Institute, a Washington D.C.-based advocate for religious liberty.
Together with hundreds more organizations, the groups called out the Beijing Winter Olympics sponsors, which include multinational companies such as Coca-Cola, Intel, P&G, Samsung, Toyota, Visa, Allianz, Omega, Panasonic, Atos, Bridgestone, Alibaba, and AirBnb for failing to fulfill their due diligence responsibilities on human rights.
"These Games are taking place during a period of intense repression of fundamental human rights in the Uyghur Region, Tibet, Hong Kong, and even the very city where the Games will take place," CSW founder and president Mervyn Thomas remarked, as reported by the Christian Post.
"Across China, human rights lawyers have been disbarred, banned from leaving the country, detained and tortured, and Christians and other religious communities are facing unprecedented restrictions on their online religious activities even as their physical meeting spaces are shut down."
China has long been accused of human rights abuses against the Muslim ethnic minorities who reside in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Up to 1 million Uyghurs have been found to be detained in internment camps for what the Chinese government calls "re-education" and "de-radicalization."
The CCP has also carried out a ruthless religious repression campaign against Christianity and other faith groups in China, with the aim to force these groups to adhere to the party's teachings.
In December 2021, an independent U.K.-based tribunal found that China has committed genocide against the Uyghur Muslims, accusing the Chinese government of "birth control and sterilisation measures," BBC reported. Sir Geoffrey Nice, who served as the chair of the tribunal, said its panel has decided that China carried out "a deliberate, systematic and concerted policy" to spur a "long-term reduction of Uyghur and other ethnic minority populations." They also believe that Chinese president Xi Jinping bore "primary responsibility" for the human rights abuses against the Uyghurs.
"What is particularly troubling is the evidence that this genocide is in particular targeted at women, and focused on preventing births," Conservative Member of the Parliament Nus Ghani remarked, calling the conclusion of the tribunal "groundbreaking."
The Washington Times' Robby Smith wrote in an op-ed that unfortunately, "America's most well-known companies" are not concerned with these abuses, adding, "They're happily paying China many millions of dollars to sponsor the games. And by doing so, they're lending legitimacy to Beijing's repressive regime."
Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Intel, Visa and Procter & Gamble or P&G have provided about $100 each to sponsor the Beijing Winter Olympics, which means that they and other sponsors are "essentially handing many millions of dollars to China's repressive regime - with no questions asked."
