China’s government is showing how it feels about international condemnation of its human rights abuses.
During the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China made a particularly brazen decision to choose an Uyghur athlete to deliver the ceremonial flame, which NBC News notes “often carries symbolic weight based in part on who is selected for the task.”
“This was a riposte to President Joe Biden for skipping these Olympics,” Andy Browne, editorial director of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum said during NBC’s broadcast, adding that it was “a message to the West: China won’t be lectured to on human rights, or on any other issue.”
NBC’s Savannah Guthrie noted, “This moment is quite provocative, it’s a statement from the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to choose an athlete from the Uyghur minority, it is an in your face response to those Western nations including the U.S., who have called this Chinese treatment of that group genocide…there will be much discussion about this.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper weighed in on China’s move on Twitter, “Hard to imagine a more cynical move. The Chinese government is literally committing genocide simultaneously against the Uyghurs.”
Hard to imagine a more cynical move. The Chinese government is literally committing genocide simultaneously against the Uyghurs. (Thread) https://t.co/7gsaDCRXh1
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 4, 2022
He went on to share a series of articles detailing horrific allegations of forced labor, sterilization, and torture that Uyghurs have been subjected to in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
Last year, a U.K.-based panel determined that China’s treatment of Uyghurs amounts to genocide. And the U.S. announced a diplomatic boycott of the games but vowed to support its athletes.
China has denied that it mistreats Uyghurs.
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, also called out China in a tweet writing, “The Chinese government selects an athlete with Uyghur heritage to light the Olympic torch, as if that might make us forget that Beijing is detaining one million Uyghur Muslims to force them to abandon their religion, culture, and language.”
The Chinese government selects an athlete with Uyghur heritage to light the Olympic torch, as if that might make us forget that Beijing is detaining one million Uyghur Muslims to force them to abandon their religion, culture and language. #NotSoSimple https://t.co/PtwfAGRnRZ.
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) February 4, 2022
As Rushan Abbas, an Uyghur activist, noted in a column in USA Today, “The 1936 Berlin Games were known as the ‘Nazi Olympics.’ More than merely a sporting event, these Games gave Germany a platform for Nazi propaganda.”
“The Nazis already operated concentration camps, just as China operates and denies the existence of Uyghur concentration camps. The Nazis promoted a false image of a free and open society before the Berlin Games, just as China attempts to portray with Uyghurs,” she added.
NBC faced heavy criticism on Friday over its coverage of the games, with some alleging it is “casually pushing Chinese Communist propaganda” and brushing off concerns about human rights abuses.
China’s decision to thumb its nose at charges of genocide by having a smiling Uyghur athlete deliver the Olympic torch truly is a ghoulish move.