Australian Human Rights Groups Rally to Call for Boycott of the ‘Genocide Games’

Australian human rights groups rallied on the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics to condemn the CCP's ongoing human rights violations. The photo shows the rally in Sydney's Martin Place on Feb. 4, 2022. (Li Rui / The Epoch Times)

The Beijing Winter Olympics will open on the evening of Feb. 4 amidst a wave of international boycotts, with a number of Australian human rights groups joining together to condemn the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continued human rights violations.

Human rights activists from Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, and mainland China held a rally at Martin Place in Sydney on Friday to call attention to the human rights atrocities committed by the CCP regime.

The signs placed at the rally site read "Boycott Beijing 2022" and "I will not watch." (Li Rui/The Epoch Times)

“The CCP regime has massacred 80 million innocent civilians, and its heinous crimes against humanity continue,” the Australian and New Zealand Alliance for Victims of Chinese Communist Regime (ANZAC) said in an announcement for the rally.

“Holding the Olympic Games is a political action by the CCP regime trying to whitewash and cover up its heinous crimes. It is a shameless distortion and desecration of the Olympic Games, which symbolize peace, harmony, and unity.”

Australian human rights groups gathered at Martin Place in Sydney on Feb. 4, 2022, to condemn the tyranny of the CCP and call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The photo shows Uyghur human rights activists participating in the rally. (Li Rui/The Epoch Times)

Speaking at the rally  Dr. Feng Chongyi, Chairman of the ANZAC and associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), said that the current communist regime in China embodied the complete opposite of the Olympic Games values.

“This regime has been doing everything in opposition to the spirit of the Olympics,” he said. “The regime has killed over eight million innocent citizens since its establishment in 1949.”

Dr. Feng Chongyi, chairman of the ANZAC, speaks at the rally. (Li Rui / The Epoch Times)

Meanwhile Australian Uyghur human rights activist Arslan Hidayat said there were striking similarities between the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“The Beijing Olympics are being conducted by a regime guilty of mass atrocities, ethnic cleansing, and systematic genocide, just like the Nazis,” he said, adding that the Berlin Olympics gave legitimacy to Hitler’s regime and contributed to the massacre of six million Jews, which is an absolute shame.

Australian Uyghur human rights activist Arslan Hidayat speaks at the rally. (Li Rui / The Epoch Times)

“Really, the only difference between the two is that the Berlin Games happen in summer while the Beijing Games are happening in winter.”

Hidayat’s comments were echoed by Kyinzom Dhongdue, a candidate for the Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance Party who is running for the federal Senate.

Dhongdue told The Epoch Times that the 2022 Beijing Olympics were being held against the backdrop of a genocide committed by the communist regime.

Kyinzom Dhongdue (left), a candidate of the Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance Party running for the Federal Senate, is pictured. (Li Rui / The Epoch Times)

“Back in 2008, the International Olympic Committee hoped that the Games and the international attention that it would bring would improve human rights, but here we are in 2022,” Dhongdue said. “The situation in Tibet, the situation facing the Falun Gong devotees, the human rights activists in China have gone from bad to worse.”

Dhongdue said she felt failed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who, she said, had been called upon by human rights groups to stand up for the rights of the persecuted communities in China.

“The International Olympic Committee has failed us. They have not listened to us… What the International Olympic Committee did, by going ahead with the Olympic Games, is really giving legitimacy and dosing the Chinese Communist Party,” she said.

“So we are here to say speak up, take a stand. Don’t watch the genocide games.”

A number of Australian human rights groups gathered at Martin Place in Sydney on Feb. 4, 2022 to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. (Li Rui/The Epoch Times)

On Feb. 3, over 70 legislators from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) signed a joint statement on the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

“We should not allow the Games to distract from the persecution of Tibetans, Christians, Falun Gong Practitioners, and other ethnic and religious minorities, nor will we stay silent as the Chinese government dismantles Hong Kong’s way of life, threatens Taiwan, and coerces Lithuania, Australia and other countries through trade,” the statement said.

“We express our gratitude to all government ministers and diplomats who answered the call to decline invitations to attend the Games, but these actions do not go far enough. Democratic countries must take tangible steps to hold the Chinese government accountable for its violations.”

Human Rights Watch also issued a statement on Jan. 27 that 243 global groups are calling for action to be taken on the human rights violations by the CCP.

Australian human rights groups gathered at Martin Place in Sydney on Feb. 4, 2022, to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. The picture shows the banners and signs at the rally. (Li Rui/The Epoch Times)

Since the CCP regime secured the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, non-governmental organizations and media outlets have documented numerous serious human rights violations by the communist authority, including the arbitrary detention, torture, and forced labor of millions of Uyghurs; serious damage to Hong Kong’s independent media, democratic institutions, and the rule of law; arbitrary detention, torture, and forcible confinement of missing human rights defenders, and other abuses.