Republican Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida announced on Monday a new House resolution that urges the United States to withdraw from participating in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, which is set to take place in Beijing, China.
FOX News reported that as per Rep. Waltz, the country "cannot in good conscience" send in American athletes to participate in games hosted by the "brutal dictatorship" that is the China's Communist Party. He added that the Chinese will only be "emboldened by the legitimacy conferred by the Olympics."
With the 2022 Olympics, the CCP is hoping to create a better outward image to the world, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-2020. In fact, the CCP recently applauded the World Health Organization's dismissal of the lab accident theory on the origins of COVID-19 after WHO investigators said that it was "highly unlikely" that it happened.
According to The Washington Post, Chinese officials and local state media celebrated the results, feeling vindicated and triumphant that the results would help in "effectively silencing claims that China was hiding secrets and trying to deflect blame." Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations said, "China was the big winner."
But if it's up to Rep. Waltz, the CCP should be barred from hosting any major global events in the near future following the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the coronavirus investigation, and other missteps by the Chinese authorities. According to Waltz's proposed resolution, the United States Olympic Committee (IOC) should consider the "transfer of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to a site other than within the People's Republic of China."
If the IOC does not approve, then the U.S. Olympic Committee, as well as those of other countries "should withdraw from the 2022 Olympic Games." Rep. Waltz outlines the grave offenses that the CCP have committed to warrant the withdrawal of support in the 2020 Olympics. He said that the CCP's "unprecedented steps" and "heinous acts" should disqualify them from hosting the upcoming global sporting event.
The Daily Wire reported that according to Rep. Waltz, "The world cannot legitimize the CCP's acts of genocide in Xinjiang, destruction of the democratic rights of Hong Kong, and dangerous suppression of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan that cost lives by sending delegations to Beijing."
Rep. Waltz outlines CCP's "heinous acts" and major offenses, including "[extending] their repressive policies through censorship, intimidation, and the detention of individuals and groups for exercising their fundamental human rights, especially in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and Hong Kong," as well as "mass internment camps, forced labor, and efforts to intensify campaigns that bring religion in China 'under closer official control,' and to conceal the novel coronavirus."
In speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, Rep. Waltz said that at this crucial point following the WHO's investigation into the origins of COVID-19, it is "indisputable" that the CCP had effectively covered up the virus. He also challenged President Biden, who recently had his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, to support the proposed House resolution.
