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/