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Human rights in China
China

Olympic committee accused of ‘gross hypocrisy’ over Xinjiang silence after taking action on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

  • The discrepancy affirms what critics of the International Olympic Committee believe to be a long pattern of deference to Chinese leaders
  • ‘The IOC is a morally bankrupt organisation and inconsistent in its actions,’ says a member of the US Congress

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The IOC has stripped Russian President Vladimir Putin of the Olympic Order award in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Photo: AFP
Owen Churchill

As International Olympic Committee officials were attacked in recent years over their refusal to weigh in on alleged rights abuses in China, they stuck rigidly to one retort: the IOC is an impartial body and sport must be insulated from politics.

“The position of the IOC must be, given [our] political neutrality, that we are not commenting on political issues,” IOC President Thomas Bach said on the eve of the Beijing Winter Games last month.

But in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the IOC moved rapidly to denounce the attack, announcing on Monday that it would strip Russian President Vladimir Putin of his Olympic Order medal and urging international sporting bodies to blacklist Russian and Belarusian athletes.

The contrasting responses have left human rights advocates, Olympic observers and lawmakers questioning the IOC’s justification for not criticising Beijing, compounding long-standing criticism that it has turned a blind eye to China’s crackdown on ethnic minority groups, its tightening grip on Hong Kong and stifling of dissent.

“While the IOC’s swift banning of Russia is the right step to take, it reveals a gross hypocrisy that in the face of genocide they refused to disqualify the Chinese Communist Party from hosting the Olympics,” said US Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican.

Smith was referring to an official determination by the US government that China’s treatment of Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region constituted “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”, charges that Beijing denies.
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