Open brief aan de Europese Ministeries van Buitenlandse zaken: Boycot de Olympische Winterspelen van 2022 in Peking

Open letter to EU leaders ahead of the European Council Summit on 16 December 2021

14 December 2021

Dear High Representative,
Dear Foreign Ministers,

We are a coalition of over 250 global campaign groups representing Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hongkongers, Chinese, Southern Mongolians, Taiwanese, and other affected and concerned communities. Ahead of the European Council Summit, we urge EU leaders to take strong
multilateral action by committing to a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

On 9 December an independent tribunal (1) found China was carrying out “a deliberate, systematic and concerted policy” to bring about “long-term reduction of Uyghur and other Turkic people “, and such constituted genocide and crimes against humanity under the 1948 Genocide
Convention. (2)

For EU leaders or diplomats to attend the Beijing 2022 Winter Games in the knowledge that the host state is enacting a genocide would be an act of complicity and an enabling of China’s plan to ‘sport wash’ (3) their human rights abuses. Further to the active genocide against the Uyghur people, new evidence released this week shows that close to 1-million Tibetan children are being housed by Chinese authorities in colonial boarding schools, cut off from their parents, families, culture, and religion, and faced with intense political indoctrination. (4)
In Hong Kong, three more democracy activists have been found  ‘guilty’ for taking part in a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. They now face sentences of up to five years in jail simply for taking part in a peaceful protest.
There is no prospect of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games playing a positive role for human rights or encouraging the Chinese government to halt the above human rights violations.
As the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics showed, the Chinese government will instead interpret the lack of action by governments and the presence of leaders and dignitaries at the opening and closing ceremonies as a message that it risks no serious consequences for its actions.
Governments must now prove that there is the political will to stand up against China’s despicable human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. In this last week we have seen the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia all make commitments to boycott Beijing 2022, and it is now time for every government around to stand on the right side of history. The Chinese government is aware that the EU is in a uniquely powerful position due to its ability to act as a bloc to stand for human rights. A joint boycott by EU countries has the potential to be the strongest statement yet by governments who care about defending human rights.

We, therefore, call on EU leaders to urgently commit to a joint multilateral diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022.

Yours sincerely,

Mandie McKeown, Executive Director, International Tibet Network
on behalf of:
Dorjee Tseten Dolkun, Students for a Free Tibet
Dulkun Isa, World Uyghur Congress
Frances Hui, We The Hongkongers
Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs
Jenny Wang, Keep Taiwan Free
Tashi Shitsetsang, Tibetan Youth Association Europe
John Jones, Free Tibet
Dr Zoe Bedford, Australia Tibet Council
Teng Biao, China Against the Death Penalty
周锋锁 Zhou Fengsuo, Humanitarian China
Mattias Bjornerstedt, Swedish Tibet Committee
Bhuchung Tsering, International Campaign for Tibet
Lhadon Tethong, Tibet Action Institute
Omar Kanat, Uyghur Human Rights Project
Enghebatu Togochog, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Center

and the following organisations:

Action Free Hong Kong Montreal
Aide aux Refugies Tibetains
Alberta Uyghur Association
Amigos de Tibet, Colombia
Amigos del Tíbet, Chile
Amigos del Tíbet, El Salvador
Anterrashtriya Bharat – Tibbet Sahyog Samiti
AREF International Onlus
Asociación Cultural Peruano Tibetana
Asociación Cultural Tibetano Costarricense
Association Cognizance Tibet, North Carolina
Association Drôme Ardèche-Tibet
Associazione Italia-Tibet
Association of the New School for Democracy
Atlas Movement
Australia China Watch
Australian East Turkestan Association
Australian Uyghur Association
Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association
Austria Uyghur Association
Bath District Tibet Support Group
Bay Area Friends of Tibet
Belgium Uyghur Association
Bharrat Tibbat Sahyog Manch, India
Birmingham Stands with Hong Kong
Boston Tibet Network
Boston Uyghur Association
Briancon05 Urgence Tibet
Bristol Tibet
Burst the Bubble UK
Canada Tibet Committee
Canadian Coalition Against Communism
Captive Nations Coaltion
Casa del Tibet – Spain
Casa Tibet México
Centro De Cultura Tibetana, Brazil
China Alarm
Circle of Friends (Philippines)
Citizen Power Initiatives for China
Comité de Apoyo al Tibet (CAT)
Comité pour la Liberté à Hong-Kong
Committee of 100 for Tibet
Core Group for Tibetan Cause, India
Cornell Society for the Promotion of East Asian Liberty
Covenants Watch
Czechs Support Tibet
DC Chapter of China Democracy Party
DC4HK – Washingtonians Supporting Hong Kong
Defend Democracy
Dream for Children, Japan
Dutch Uyghur Human Rights Foundation
East Turkistan Association in Finland
East Turkistan Association of Canada
East Turkistan Education Center in Europe
East Turkistan New Generation Movement
East Turkistan Nuzugum Culture and Family
Organization
East Turkistan Press and Media Organization
East Turkistan Union in Europe
Eastern Turkistan Foundation
Eastern Turkistan Uyghur Association in the Netherlands
EcoTibet Ireland

Lungta Association Belgium
Maison des Himalayas
Maison du Tibet – Tibet Info
Mavi Hilal Humanitarian Organization
McGill Hong Kong Public Awareness and Social Service
National Campaign for Tibetan Support, India
National Democratic Party of Tibet
Netherlands for Hong Kong
Never Again Right Now
Northern California Hong Kong Club
Norwegian Uyghur Committee
NY4HK
Objectif TibetPasseport Tibetain
Ontario Hong Kong Youth Action (OHKYA)
Perth Anti-CCP Association
Phagma Drolma-Arya Tara
Power to Hongkongers
RangZen:Movimento Tibete Livre, Brazil
Regional Tibetan Association of Massachusetts
Roof of the World Foundation, Indonesia
Sakya Trinley Ling
Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet
Save the Mongolian Language
Save the Persecuted Christians
Save Tibet Foundation
Save Tibet, Austria
Shukr Foundation
Sierra Friends of Tibet
Society for Threatened Peoples International
Society Union of Uyghur National Association
STAND Canada
Stand With Hong Kong Vienna
Stop Uyghur Genocide Canada
Students for a Free Tibet – Canada
Students for a Free Tibet – UK
Students for a Free Tibet – Denmark
Students for a Free Tibet – India
Students for a Free Tibet – Japan
Students for a Free Tibet – Taiwan
Students For Hong Kong
Sweden Uyghur Education Union
Swedish Tibet Committee
Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association (GSTF)
Switzerland East Turkestan Association
台灣永社 Taiwan Forever Association
Taiwan Friends of Tibet
Taiwan East Turkistan Association
Taiwan New Constitution Foundation
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Taiwan Labour Front
Tashi Delek Bordeaux
The Norwegian Tibet Committee
The Youth Liberation Front of Tibet, Mongolia and
Turkestan
Tibet Action Group of Western Australia
Tibet cesky (Tibet in Czech)
Tibet Committee of Fairbanks
Tibet Group, Panama
Tibet Initiative Deutschland
Tibet Justice Center
Tibet Lives, India
Tibet Mx

4 China’s Vast System of Colonial Boarding Schools in Tibet’ gives evidence to Chinese government policies are forcing three out of four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating 800,000-900,000 children aged 6-18 from their families and communities. This number does not include an additional, unknown number of four- and five-year olds. The schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to eliminate Tibetan identity and supplant it with a Chinese nationalist identity in order to neutralize any resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. https://tibetaction.net/campaigns/colonialboardingschools/
3 “Sports washing” is the practice of an individual, group, corporation, or nation-state using sport to improve its reputation, through hosting a sporting event, the purchase or sponsorship of sporting teams, or by participation in the sport itself. At the nation-state level, sportswashing has been used to direct attention away from a poor human rights record. While at the individual or Corporate level sportswashing is used to cover up and direct away attention from said person’s or company’s
vices, crimes, or scandals.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing
2 Uyghur Tribunal’s judgment – https://uyghurtribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Uyghur-Tribunal-Summary-Judgment-9th-Dec-21.pdf
1 The Uyghur Tribunal is an independent people’s tribunal set up to investigate ‘ongoing atrocities and possible Genocide’ against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic Muslim Populations. The Chair of the Tribunal is Sir Geoffrey Nice, a barrister former judge in England who previously led the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. https://uyghurtribunal.com/who-we-are/