Why must we boycott the Beijing 2022 Olympics? 為什麼我們必須抵制北京冬季奧運會？

Since Beijing first began bidding to host the Olympics, I have argued that the international community should reject Beijing's hosting of the Games because of the lack of change in the Chinese Communist dictatorship since the Tiananmen massacre and the continued deterioration of human rights in P R China.  The peaceful protests across Tibet in March 2008 were brutally cracked down five months before the opening of the Beijing Olympics. But many leaders, business and media tycoons, and academic influential in democratic countries were not willing to take action to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They argued that the Games would bring positive change to China.

Fourteen years on, the assumption that positive change would happen in China through the Olympics has proved to be totally wrong. The 2008 Beijing Olympics have only encouraged the Chinese dictatorship even more atrociously to repress human rights defenders, democracy movement, and self-determination campaigns in China, East Turkestan, Hong Kong, Southern Mongolia, and Tibet. Dozens of Charter 08 signatories received long prison sentences, including Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xiaobo was the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in prison since Nazi Germany. Dozens of prisoners of conscience including Cao Shunli and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche also have died in prison.

In the past fourteen years, more than 150 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest against the cultural genocide in Tibet. The Uighur area has been turned into an open-air prison through street surveillance and police checkpoints after the Urumqi bloodshed created by the Chinese authorities. Uyghur scholar Ilhaam Tohti has been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 after advocacy for the rights of the Uyghurs. Since 2016, millions of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims have been imprisoned in “re-education” concentration camps, where they are subjected to forced labour and their slave products have been sold across the world.

Over the past dozens of years, many democracies have seen their democratic principles have eroded and human rights standards lowered after attempted to gain economic advantage with China. During Xi Jinping's visit to the UK, the British police were pressured by the Chinese and British governments to detain peaceful protesters, raid their homes and confiscate their electronic equipment. To this day, the British government and police continue to cover up the inside story of their dealings with the Chinese dictator and refuse to take responsibility.

The international democratic community must unite to boycott the Beijing 2022 Olympics. If human rights and democracy continue to be sacrificed to elites’ economic interests and business of sport, then finally we will lose democracy and more rights. To boycott the Beijing 2022 Olympics, uplift our humanity and consciousness, safeguard our own democracy and freedom, fight for human rights and equality for all.

Note：Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper targeted by a national security police raid last week, will shut down online at midnight today (23 June) and will print its final edition on 24 June 2021.

-------------------------------

In Chinese

                               為什麼我們必須抵制北京冬季奧運會？

從北京第一次開始申辦奧運會始，我認為國際社會應該拒絕北京主辦奧運會，原因是天安門屠殺以後中共專制制度沒有改變，中共統治地區的人權狀況持續惡化。 2008年夏季奧運會開幕之前五個月，中國當局血腥鎮壓了西藏大規模的和平示威。但是民主國家的絕大多數領導人、商業和媒體大亨、學術界有權勢者不願意採取行動抵制北京奧運會。他們認為奧運會會給中國帶來正面變化。

14年過去了，事實證明通過奧運會為中國帶來正面變化的假設是完全錯誤的。北京奧運會只是鼓勵了中共獨裁政權更加殘酷地鎮壓在中國、東突厥斯坦、香港、南蒙古和西藏的人權活動人士、民主和自決運動。零八憲章的十幾位簽署者被判長期徒刑。劉曉波是納粹德國​以來第一位在監禁中死亡的諾貝爾和平獎得主。類似劉曉波在監禁中死亡的良心犯有數十名，包括曹順利和丹增德勒仁波切。

在過去的14年中，超過150位藏人自焚抗議中國政府在西藏實施的文化滅絕政策。在中國當局製造烏魯木齊血案後，通過街頭監控和密布的警察檢查使維吾爾地區成為露天監獄。 2014年，維吾爾族學者伊力哈木因倡導維吾爾權利被判處終身監禁。 2016年後，上百萬維吾爾人和其他突厥穆斯林被關入集中營，他們被強迫勞動，生產的奴工產品遍布全世界。

在過去的幾十年中，許多民主國家為牟取與中國的經濟利益致使自己的民主原則被蠶食，人權標準也降低。在習近平訪問英國時，英國警方受到中英政府的雙重壓力，拘留和平示威者，並對這些示威者抄家，沒收電子設備。時至今日，英國政府和警方仍然掩蓋與中國政府的內幕交易，拒絕承擔責任。

國際民主社區必須聯合抵制北京奧運會。如果繼續以經濟利益包括體育商業犧牲人權和民主，那麼最終我們將失去民主和更多的權利。抵制北京2022年奧運會，提升我們的人性和良知，保護我們的民主和自由，爭取所有人的人權和平等。

注：上週香港當局動用國安​法派出大批警察在《蘋果日報》辦公室查抄，逮捕《蘋果日報》編輯，《蘋果日報》被迫今天（6月23日）午夜关闭网络版，2021年6月24日印刷最后一期报纸。