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Australian Polity, Volume 10 Number 1 & 2

March 2022 issue of Australian Polity

March 2022 issue of Australian Polity

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Guess which country is a gold medallist for Olympic

boycotts. Surely not the country that claimed

recently a diplomatic boycott to be a ‘political

manipulation and a grave distortion of the Olympic

Charter.’ If you guessed China, you would be correct. The

PRC boycotted the Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, Tokyo

in 1964, Montreal in 1976 and Moscow in 1980. These

were full boycotts, not simply the diplomatic boycotts

imposed by the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, New Zealand

and Lithuania to date on the Beijing Winter games. Others

may follow: last July the European Parliament passed a

resolution urging EU leaders to ‘refuse the invitation of

government officials and diplomats to attend the Beijing

2022 Winter Olympics.’

At first, the Chinese Communist Party was dismissive of

the action which had already been foreshadowed when

some 20 nations declined the sign the traditional Olympic

truce. Foreign dignitaries weren’t invited was the official

line. ‘Whether they come or not, nobody cares,’ said CCP

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. But when

the decisions were announced, the CCP propaganda

swung to its usual high dungeon: the West would pay

for this snub.

True to form, the International Olympic Committee fell in

behind the CCP. The Olympics are about human flourishing

according to the IOC. Tell that to the millions of Uyghurs,

Tibetans, Hong Kongers and others suffering from the

CCP’s brutal activities.

The IOC is conflicted, if not compromised, over China.

Even the uniforms worn by the IOC members and

administrators for both the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics

are supplied by the Hengyuanxiang Group, which has a

textiles factory in Xinjiang where the use of Uyghur slave

labor is common.

Five years ago, the CCP and the IOC were involved in

the closure of the UN Office on Sport for Development

and Peace, giving more power to each. The UN itself is

highly conflicted. An employee, Emma Reilly recently

accused the Commission for Human Rights of sharing

names of dissidents with the Chinese authorities, who

then arrest them and place them in detention camps.

‘China wants to make sure that the Uyghur genocide is

never discussed anywhere in the UN,’ she said.

The IOC’s reaction to the ‘disappearance’ of the tennis

star, Peng Shuai, is telling. ‘Nothing to see here,’ is the

message from the Olympics body after a staged video

call between IOC president Thomas Bach and Peng. It

is most unlikely that Peng organised the call. A Chinese

IOC member, Li Lingwei, was also on the call, but all that

has emerged is a photo of Peng talking to Bach. There

was no transcript. It has also emerged that another call

was also held, but again the details are vague.

The attitude of the IOC stands in stark contrast to the

Women’s Tennis Association Tour, whose CEO, Steve

Simon, led the global concerns about Peng. Despite

repeated attempts to contact Peng, the WTA remains

unable to connect. Based on a likely choreographed

call to the IOC, the world is expected to believe Peng is

safe. In contrast to the IOC, the WTA has announced it

will suspend tournaments in China.

As these events were occurring, the independent China

Tribunal issued a devastating report on the plight of

the Uyghurs after a year-long investigation. Chaired by

the war crimes prosecutor, Sir Geoffrey Nice, the panel

concluded that China has committed genocide against

the Uyghurs. The panel was ‘satisfied that President Xi

Jinping, Chen Quanguo and other very senior officials

in the PRC and CCP bear primary responsibility for acts

in Xinjiang.’ The tribunal accepted evidence of torture,

mass internments, forcible transfer of Uyghur children to

state-run facilities, and a mass birth-prevention strategy.

China had undertaken a ‘deliberate, systematic and

concerted policy’ to bring about the ‘long-term reduction

of Uyghur and other ethnic minority populations.’ While

acknowledging that there was “no evidence of mass

killings” in Xinjiang yet, Sir Geoffrey said that the efforts

to prevent births amounted to genocidal intent.

Many of the same practices have been deployed in

Tibet, where some 800,000 children have been housed

in state-run institutions. Chinese language and culture

are prioritised over Tibetan in a deliberate policy to wipeout

the local culture.

The Tribunal’s recent report followed previous findings

of Crimes Against Humanity against the Falan Gong

practitioners and Uyghurs had been proven beyond

reasonable doubt.

Australian Polity 19

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