Beijing Winter Olympic boycott backed

A number of Christians are backing calls for a diplomatic boycott of the forthcoming winter Olympic Games, which are set to take place in the Chinese capital from 4–20 February. So far the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia have all announced boycotts; no UK government ministers will attend the games.

Concerns have been heightened following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) recent refusal to meet the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. The Coalition had for some time been pressing the IOC to confront the possibility that the Muslim Uyghur minority was being forced to manufacture official merchandise for the Olympics, and to ask what it was doing to prevent it.

Magali Martowicz, the IOC’s head of human rights responded: ‘While we will continue to strengthen our work in relation to labour rights, we regret to conclude that your organisation and the IOC will not be able to engage in a dialogue this time as a result of differences in approach’.