US House Speaker Pelosi Calls For Diplomatic Boycott Of 2022 Olympics In China

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2021) The United States should lead a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to China's human rights abuses, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.

"Here's what I propose, and join those who are proposing, is a diplomatic boycott," Pelosi told a hearing on "China, Genocide and the Olympics" jointly hosted by the Human Rights Commission and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Pelosi's call for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Games comes after a group of human rights organizations published an open letter on Monday, urging the world to stay away from the event to send a strong message to Beijing over its rights record.

Pelosi, a Democrat, had previously asked Republican President George Bush to skip the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing on similar grounds of right abuses.

Bush ignored the call and went on to attend the opening ceremony.

Ignoring China's abuses this time was not an option, Pelosi said in her latest plea, aimed at Democrat President Joe Biden and other world leaders. "Silence on this issue is unacceptable," the US House Speaker told Tuesday's hearing. "It enables China's abuses."

Numerous human rights groups have publicized human rights issues in mainland China that they consider the government to be mishandling that included the death penalty, the political and legal status of Tibet, and neglect of freedom of the press in mainland China and the treatment of Muslim Uyghurs.