Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a boycott this week of the upcoming winter Olympic games in Beijing, China, in opposition to ongoing human rights abuses in the country.
In a Monday tweet, Pompeo called on President Joe Biden to boycott the Beijing Olympic games. “It is not enough for @POTUS to ‘consider’ boycotting the Beijing Olympics. Participating in the games would reward Xi Jinping & the CCP for their ongoing human rights atrocities. The answer is simple: #BoycottBeijingOlympics.”
On Nov. 18, during a White House visit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Biden was asked whether he would support the Olympic boycott. Biden replied, “It’s something we’re considering.”
On Sunday, Pompeo criticized China, under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for various human rights abuses, including detaining reporters, doctors and activists, and detaining the predominantly Muslim-minority Uyghur population and citizens in Hong Kong.
“The CCP has disappeared reporters writing about Wuhan virus, docs telling the truth about CCP labs, a prof tennis player, Uighurs, Hong Kongers & the head of Interpol,” Pompeo tweeted on Sunday. “Let’s disappear the Olympics from them & hold it in a place the world can be proud of. #BoycottBeijingOlympics.”
Pompeo’s tweet referenced a litany of human rights concerns out of China.
China has been accused of detaining about 1.8 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region. As one of his last actions as secretary of state, Pompeo declared China’s actions in Xinjiang amount to genocide.
China has also been accused of detaining demonstrators in Hong Kong who have opposed China expanding its authority over the semi-autonomous territory.
China has also punished journalists and medical experts who raised questions early on about the spread of COVID-19, which was first discovered in Wuhan, China.
Interpol president and Chinese Public Security official, Meng Hongwei, went missing after traveling to China in September of 2018. Meng later reemerged and plead guilty in June of 2019 to bribery charges.
Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has been missing in recent days. Peng went missing shortly after she accused former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into sex.
Peng revealed the alleged incident in a post on the Chinese social media network Weibo. Within 30 minutes of publication, Peng’s post was deleted and Chinese censors immediately worked to remove all mentions of the accusation online. The popular tennis star’s Weibo account – which has over 500,000 followers — was also blocked from searches.
Pompeo is not the only prominent U.S. politician to call for a boycott of the Beijing games. Nikki Haley, the former U.N. Ambassador under President Donald Trump, has called for a boycott of the games. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators have also called for the boycott and introduced legislation to force the issue.
