US Athletes Should Boycott Beijing Olympics in Protest of CCP’s Abuses: Rights Advocate

President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers Reggie Littlejohn on Jan. 14, 2022. (NTD interview)

The president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and co-founder of the GenocideGames.org taskforce, Reggie Littlejohn, said she wants the U.S. Olympic Committee to urge U.S. athletes not to attend the 2022 Games in Beijing for their own protection and to stand against the various human rights abuses perpetrated by the CCP.

“What’s the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] going to do if one of those athletes unfurls a flag that says ‘Free Tibet’ or ‘I stand with Hong Kong’ or ‘Stop genocide in Xinjiang’? And what’s the American government going to do if the Chinese government decides to arrest our athletes?” said Littlejohn. “So for the protection of the athletes, we think they should not attend the games.”

Beginning in early February, the 2022 Winter Olympics will be the first Winter Games in China and the second overall Olympics there.

Littlejohn told NTD’s “Capitol Report“ host Steve Lance that more athletes should take a stand against the human rights abuses committed by the CCP, like basketball player Enes Freedom has done.

Enes Freedom is a Swiss-born basketball player, now a U.S. citizen playing for the Boston Celtics. He has consistently spoken out against the CCP for its persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and is telling fellow athletes not to participate in the Beijing Olympics.

“I’m calling them out and saying all the gold medals in the world that you can win, it is not more important than your morals, your principles, and your values,” Freedom told France 24 in a recent interview.

The Uyghur Tribunal, made up of British lawyers, academics, and businesspeople, concluded (pdf) that the CCP has committed “genocide, crimes against humanity, and torture” against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of the region’s other indigenous groups.

Littlejohn said the corporations sponsoring the Winter Games should put human rights before their self-interests, and not give the CCP more opportunities to spread propaganda and allow it to continue abusing and killing its citizens.

“And not only do they not say anything, they actually promote this extremely prestigious international event that is going to be a way for the Chinese Communist Party to have your propaganda goldmine,” she said.

She says the sponsors could choose to delay the winter games, like they did when the virus was spreading, in protest of the genocide and abuses happening in China.

“I don’t see any reason that the Beijing Games can’t be delayed a year because of genocide, and moved so the athletes don’t have to be surveilled, and they don’t have to be competing on soil that’s stained with the blood of genocide,” she said.

In addition to the Uyghurs, the international human rights community has documented the systematic torture and killing of other prisoners of conscience such as Falun Gong practitioners and Christians.

Littlejohn is a leading expert on forced abortion, sexual slavery, and gendercide in China. She has testified in front of the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament and has spoken to the Canadian Parliament about these abuses.