Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is calling on President Joe Biden to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
“If the United States had known what Nazi Germany would become, would we have participated in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics? This is not a historical head-scratcher. The answer bears directly on next year’s Winter Olympics in Communist China,” Haley wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News.
She added, “The United States should boycott Beijing 2022 given China’s threats abroad and tyranny at home.”
Haley noted the United States acknowledges China’s government is guilty of genocide, as it is alleged.
“The United States has officially recognized that Beijing is brutally oppressing the Uighur population in its western province of Xinjiang,” she wrote.
Haley continued, “All told, more than 12 million Uighurs live in daily fear that they could be imprisoned, tortured or even killed. It is not the Holocaust, for which there is no historical parallel, past or present. But it is still a genocide.”
She stressed China is not a country the United States should “glorify” by participating in the Olympics.
“President Biden must make the decision to boycott. It shouldn’t be a tough one,” Haley said.
She added, “Symbolism matters, and if the United States and other free nations participate in Beijing 2022, the Chinese Communist Party will claim it as further proof of China’s good global standing and world leadership.”
Haley recognized some will argue the athletes should be permitted to compete after training but stressed: “individual and national athletic glory are not as important as upholding America’s guiding principles.”
She encouraged Biden to urge the nation’s allies to join the boycott. Haley noted she often stood alone on certain issues during her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley explained, “When necessary, standing alone on principle is far more important than global popularity.”
She concluded, “President Biden should choose America’s principles. We know what Communist China is. We know what Communist China is doing. The leader of the free world should not hand that evil regime a powerful symbolic victory. Nor should the freest nation in human history.”
