China shouldn’t be allowed to host the 2022 Winter Olympics given its horrific human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims, argues former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“We are now having an Olympics held in a country that is currently holding 1 million or more people in camps that look kind of like what was happening in Germany in the 1930s, where they’re forcing women to be sterilized and taking them away from their families,” said Pompeo. “That’s where we are going to send our athletes – to the surveillance state, that’s conducting genocide.”
Though Pompeo didn’t mention COVID-19, it is also concerning that we are sending our athletes to the very nation that released a virus responsible for the deaths of more than 5 million people.
“Look, I’ve been calling for us not to let our athletes go to Beijing for a long time now,” continued Pompeo. “I really regret that the leadership of the United States and the IOC have failed these athletes.”
The Biden Administration toyed with the idea of a “diplomatic boycott” of the Winter Games, but has taken no concrete action against Beijing as host.
At this point, permitting China to host the Olympics is like “rewarding” President Xi Jinping for his bad behavior, laments Pompeo, adding that athletes need to be “very careful” what they say during the event.
“The surveillance state, which will catch every world that every one of our athletes speak while they’re on the ground there…I pray that the surveillance state will not decide that they want to take an American and not let them return home when these games are over,” said Pompeo.
Beijing has more CCTV cameras than any city in the world, with an estimated 55.03 cameras per 1,000 residents.
“Who knows how the Chinese will respond if one of our young people – or a young person from another country – decides to say what they really think about the Chinese Communist Party?”
Sources:
Pompeo Warns of China’s ‘Surveillance State’ at ‘Genocide Olympics’
Mike Pompeo: US athletes should boycott Beijing Olympics, not ‘prop up’ Xi Jinping