Winter Olympics: Uyghurs can't watch as world honours China at the Games' Opening Ceremony

Eighty world leaders and elder statesmen will line up to pay their respects to China at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics today, in what promises to be one of the most spectacular ‘sport washing’ events of all time.

Three thousand dancers, actors and volunteers will glitter in the bowl of the iconic National Stadium in Beijing, illuminated by tens of thousands of fireworks.

Three hundred million people worldwide will watch the festivities, themed to emphasise China’s self-proclaimed commitment to sustainability.

But those of Uyghur descent, whose people have been locked in internment camps, separated from their children, raped, killed and shamed, will not watch the ceremony or the competitions that follow.

‘It is impossible for me to bear it,’ said Rahima Mahmut, a Uyghur who escaped to the UK. ‘For China it is about singing and dancing and praising the Communist Party.

‘For Uyghurs, it will hurt that the world has chosen to be blind because of pressure and money. The world knows at least one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are permanently held in… concentration camps. These Games give honour to China, but no country can say it did not know.’

The Uyghurs call the 2022 Winter Olympics the ‘Genocide Games’. 

Uyghur campaign groups want the broadcasters, like BBC, NBC, Canal, RAI and Eurosport, which together have paid billions of pounds to screen the Games, to use their commentaries to highlight China’s human rights record and raise awareness of abuses.

There is certainly plenty to talk about.

The US declared a diplomatic boycott of the Games in December accusing China of genocide in its repression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority in the western region of Xinjiang – an allegation China has denied.

Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Japan have announced similar boycotts.

But while ministers and diplomats from those countries will not go to the Games, 80 nations will be represented through heads of state and elder statesmen and women, with all the pomp and ceremony the Olympics can afford.

And of course, 3,000 athletes from the 90 participating countries will be there, too.

Human rights organisations, like Amnesty International, have documented the abuse of the Uyghur minority, concluding that ‘massive numbers of people have been subjected to brainwashing, torture and degrading treatment in internment camps, while millions more live in fear amid a vast surveillance apparatus’.

Amnesty has concluded one million Uyghurs have been held in mass detention facilities in Xinjiang province since 2017. Beijing insists these are ‘re-education’ centres.

Human Rights Watch has accused China of ‘crimes against humanity’ targeting Uyghurs and other groups.

Mahmut, who is a director of the Uyghur World Congress based in the UK, fled China in 2000.

Three years earlier, friends and neighbours were killed and imprisoned following protests in her hometown in what has become known among Uyghurs as the Ghulja Massacre. The persecution had begun in earnest. 

At first, Mahmut was forced to leave her five-year-old son behind, but he joined her two years later.

However, she has had no contact with any of her nine brothers and sisters since 2017, when they told her to stop calling for fear of being targeted.

In their final conversation, five years ago, her older brother told her, ‘we are in God’s hands now’. Mahmut, a chemical engineer, who now has British citizenship, refuses to dwell on her own sadness.

Instead, she highlights the painful irony that sportspeople are among those locked up in camps forced to labour, neglected and tortured at the very time China seeks plaudits for staging the Winter Olympics, and hosting some of the world’s best athletes.

‘We wrote to the IOC and pleaded that these games should not go ahead in Beijing,’ recalled Mahmut. ‘The IOC persistently refused to meet with us or survivors, who experienced the horror of the camps. They refused.’

It is not just the camps. Rights groups and politicians in the UK and US have highlighted repression and even forcible separation of children as young as five from their parents, as the authorities seek to run out the Uyghur culture and tradition.

The House of Commons declared for the first time last spring that genocide is taking place against Uyghurs and others in north-west China. The motion approved by MPs does not compel the UK to take action, but is a sign of growing discontent towards the Chinese government in Parliament. 

Campaigns have highlighted sponsors, which according to the IOC website include Airbnb, Coca Cola, Atos, Allianz, Samsung, Toyota and Visa.

‘We have contacted sponsors to highlight what is happening, but the profit is more important to them than human life and suffering,’ said Mahmut.

In 2018, almost two billion people watched the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea. Similar numbers can be expected to watch this time, but Mahmut has a message for them: ‘I want them to think about the millions of people who are suffering.’

Broadcasters will come under pressure at the Games to highlight the suffering among China’s minorities, which also include Tibetans and Hong Kongers. And journalists will be urged to ask questions about human rights in press conferences.

However, there are potential repercussions for any dissent. In October, China removed broadcasts of NBA games after Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter highlighted the plight of the Uyghurs and called for China to give Tibet independence.

In 2019 then Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong’s independence. Following the tweet Chinese sponsors cut ties with the NBA, costing an estimated $400million to the league in the fallout.

In the same year, then-Arsenal star Mesut Ozil denounced China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. The Gunners’ games were removed from broadcast and Ozil’s likeness disappeared from video games in China. The club distanced itself from the player’s statement.

‘Broadcasters basically just want to broadcast the Games and get a ton of money through their advertising,’ said Peter Irwin, senior advocacy officer at the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

‘And sponsors have been totally silent. They have said nothing about the situation. Come on, are you going to sponsor the Games while a genocide is happening and you are not going to say a word?

‘The Chinese are papering over what they are doing in the Western region, which is genocide. And that is the contrast with this lavish opening ceremony.’

Irwin feels it is unfair that the athletes have been put in a position by the IOC where they may be the only ones left to speak out on abuses.

China has warned Olympic athletes heading to its Winter Games in February that they will be ‘punished’ if they stage any form of anti-Beijing protest.

The warning shot was fired by Yang Shu, deputy director general of Beijing 2022’s International Relations Department, who was asked to comment on concerns for competitors who speak out about rights issues.

Appearing at a virtual briefing hosted by China’s embassy in Washington last week, Mr Shu said: ‘Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I’m sure will be protected and anything and any behaviour or speeches that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.’

Amnesty has highlighted the Winter Olympics at ‘sportwashing gold’.

‘The world must heed the lessons of the Beijing 2008 Games, when Chinese government promises of human rights improvements never materialised,’ said the organisation’s China researcher, Alkan Akad. 

‘Amid the severe restrictions in place at Beijing 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must do better at keeping its promise to protect athletes’ right to voice their opinions – and above all to ensure it is not complicit in any violations of athletes’ rights,’ added Akad.

However, the difference now is that China does not appear to making promises on human rights. 

The IOC has made it clear that athletes are free to express their opinions on any matter in press conferences and interviews within the Olympic bubble, as long as it is not during competition or medal ceremonies.

Team GB has said it will support any athlete that chooses to oppose the International Olympic Committee ban on podium protests.

The BOA chief executive Andy Anson said: ‘The podium situation is always difficult in that regard because we definitely want our athletes to be respectful of the athletes they are standing on the podium with.

‘(But) we are not going to stifle their freedom of expression This might be the one opportunity in their life that they have that platform.’