China will host the 2022 Winter Olympics while accused of genocide. Should the world boycott?

In October, after decades of dismissal, and amid crescendoing opposition to the “Genocide Games,” the International Olympic Committee finally sat down and listened. Sixteen months before Beijing 2022, officials opened their ears. And they heard voices that represented the oppressed. Voices that spoke for millions unheard. Voices of Uyghurs; Hong Kongers; Tibetans; democratically-inclined Chinese. Victims of Beijing’s authoritarianism.

Activists had long sought the meeting. Five of them huddled on that October day to tell the IOC why the 2022 Winter Olympics could be so damaging. They shared first-hand testimony and widely reported facts: That the Chinese government has arbitrarily detained millions of Xinjiang Muslims, and cracked down on freedoms throughout the region. Years earlier, Olympic officials had promised that the 2008 Beijing Olympics would enhance human rights. Instead, “the Chinese government has gotten exponentially more repressive,” says Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch. “The kinds of abuses that we are writing about now – even we would have found them unthinkable back then.”

The IOC heard evidence of all of this in October. “Unfortunately, that dialogue didn't lead to anything,” says Zumretay Arkin of the World Uyghur Congress. “They were quite dismissive,” she says of IOC officials. They’ve done nothing to assuage concerns of activists and politicians alike that the Games will legitimize and fortify a government which the U.S. and Canada have since accused of genocide.

“We left the meeting,” Arkin says, “with an impression that the IOC just didn't really care.”

So with 12 months to go, opposition to the Beijing Olympics is beginning to take other forms. A variety of politicians and leaders have called on the IOC to relocate the Games, but relocation, at this point, is near-impossible. Those calls, experts say, have become futile and even counterproductive. Which is why activists and politicians and even some Olympic stakeholders are devising alternative plans. The most explosive ones invoke a word that represents the IOC’s biggest fears: Boycott.

Varying degrees of boycotts

It’s been four decades since the last Olympic boycott. Ahead of 2022, some organizations, politicians and opinionists have been calling for another. “To attend a Beijing Olympics can be seen as an endorsement of genocide and crimes against humanity,” says Teng Biao, a Chinese lawyer and activist. A refusal to attend, experts say, would send a strong message to the Chinese government that abuses must cease.

Most activists, however, are not advocating for a 1980-style boycott, “because often boycotts can harm innocent bystanders,” Richardson says. “And in this case, that would be athletes.” Athletes who’ve toiled for years with a singular goal in mind. A government-enforced boycott, says Rob Koehler, director general of Global Athlete, “puts athletes as pawns.” Most activists understand that and respect it. They say ripping the Games away would be cruel.

But there is nuance within the term “boycott.” Advocates and allies are on board with the strategy if individuals and governments are making decisions for themselves, rather than imposing boycotts on athletes. A coalition of 180 human rights groups has called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games, “to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent.” And experts believe a diplomatic boycott of some scale seems likely to materialize.

“I have trouble imagining various governments sending high level people at the moment,” says Richardson, the Human Rights Watch director. “The key here is to not give the Chinese government any particular legitimacy around this event.”

There is the separate possibility that individual athletes or groups of athletes could independently threaten to boycott, if they see competing in Beijing as complicity in genocide. Any boycott, Biao says, “would be welcome” and impactful – and the more far-reaching, the more impactful.

Biao accepts, though, that most athletes will choose to compete. He and others would rather discuss more realistic options.

“If they want to come and attend the Games, and publicly boycott the opening ceremony and closing ceremony, that would be good,” Biao says of athletes. “Simply a Tweet would be helpful. That's the way. That's an easy way to not be the accomplice.”

Will protesting at the Games be allowed?

Except it’s not easy. That’s the problem for athletes wishing to take a human rights stand in Beijing. The IOC has strict rules governing demonstrations and advocacy during the Games. According to its latest Rule 50 guidelines, “athletes have the opportunity to express their opinions, including during press conferences and interviews” or on social media. But if an athlete did criticize China’s many abuses, would experts fear reprisal from Chinese authorities?

“Yes,” Richardson says matter-of-factly.