By announcing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics on December 6, 2021 the United States government is choosing to stand up to China’s human rights violations in recent years.
A diplomatic boycott means that the leaders of the United States and other countries participating will not be sending their leaders to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.
China has been accused of abuse against the Uyghur Muslims, a minority group that lives in Northern China.
“Over the past couple of years they’ve been putting these people in concentration camps and re-educating them,” social studies teacher Nicole Harner said.
Through re-educating the Uyghurs in the camps, the Chinese government is forcing the people to assimilate to Chinese culture rather than following their own.
Part of Muslim culture restricts them from eating certain foods, including pork.
“In the camps, these people will be forced to eat pork and to speak Mandarin Chinese rather than their own language, and get rid of any kind of festivals these people celebrate,” Harner said.
Harner said the Chinese government has claimed the Uyghur ethnic group to be terrorists and believe the Uyghurs are working against the state. The Chinese government uses these claims to justify the persecution and mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslims.
According to AP News, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the government felt as though they could send a clear message to China by not sending any United States officials to the Olympics.
Though leaders will not be attending the Olympics, they chose to send the athletes as a way to not penalize them as they have been training for the games for months.
“This is an understandable approach to publicly say that we’re not okay with this,” science teacher Patrick Murphy said, “but at the same time we have all these athletes and they’ve been training and they want to compete so we’re still going to send them.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, the boycott has put athletes in a complicated place.
Some want to speak out about the humanitarian issues in China, but in doing so they would put themselves at risk of a disadvantage in the competition.
“If I was an Olympic athlete, I would want my voice to be heard, like saying that I would participate but there are some things that aren’t good in these countries and communities surrounding the games,” sophomore Hasel Muller said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, United States Olympic athlete Mikaela Shiffrin said she felt like going to Beijing to compete was putting her “in a position of choosing between morality and doing her job.”
“I would still want to compete in Beijing knowing the issue, even though there are issues in the country outside of the Olympics. If you’re an Olympic athlete this is your chance to compete,” sophomore Ryan Ciuba said.
Similarly to Simone Biles stepping down from participating in an effort to spread awareness about sexual assault, athletes may use their platform to spread awareness about China’s abuse.
The Olympics began on February 4.