China’s Shameful Olympics

By Tom Cotton

Saturday, February 05, 2022

 

The greatest athletes in the world have now gathered to compete in the 24th Olympic Winter Games. Usually, the American people await this event with enthusiasm and excitement. This year, we await it with disgust.

 

This year’s games will be held in the People’s Republic of China, a Communist nation that enslaves workers, imprisons children in concentration camps, forcefully sterilizes and rapes women, and — lest we forget — unleashed a plague on the world that has killed millions.

 

There’s a word for the Chinese Communist Party. That word is “evil.” No moral nation should celebrate such a regime or participate in pageantry that will glorify and enrich it.

 

Last December, the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games. This action was inadequate and insufficient.

 

As early as last June, I urged the administration to pressure the IOC to rebid the 2022 Olympic Games and announce both a diplomatic and economic boycott of the Games if they remained in Beijing. The economic component was and remains key — these games will bring both prestige and profit to the CCP. A diplomatic boycott alone will do nothing to stop the Chinese regime from raking in cash and enriching its corrupt leadership.

 

At the time, I kept the door open to our athletes competing in the Games. I did this out of respect and admiration for the talented members of Team USA. I understand that they have sacrificed a great deal in order to participate in a potentially once-in-a-lifetime event, and I hoped that they could once again defeat the CCP’s athletes on the world stage.

 

However, I said that the security and privacy of our athletes must be ensured before we send them to Beijing. For that reason, I sent a letter to the Biden administration urging it to take the necessary actions to guarantee the safety of Team USA. For months, the administration dawdled and dithered in its duty to protect our athletes, while the threats to our Olympians have become increasingly apparent. As a result, we can have no confidence in the security and privacy of our athletes in China.

 

When Team USA goes to China, they will be monitored, their rooms will be bugged, and their electronics will be hacked. They will rely on health-tracking applications and translation services provided by Chinese companies that have been banned from the United States for spying. In short, our athletes will be in a totalitarian surveillance state that is capable of any brutality, atrocity, or crime.

 

The CCP also has a peculiar obsession with collecting biometric data and may collect the genetic information of our athletes under the guise of coronavirus testing. This concern is magnified by the fact that athletes will be given PCR tests every day of their stay in China, regardless of vaccination status.

 

Even more worrisome is the CCP’s track record of taking hostages for political gains. The State Department has issued a level-three travel advisory for any American traveling to China for this very reason. The Olympic Games will give the Chinese regime a golden opportunity to extort our nation through hostage-taking.

 

Speaker Pelosi has recently urged Americans who will be attending the Games not to speak out against Chinese atrocities, lest the Chinese government imprison or punish them. A member of the Chinese Olympic Committee has similarly warned foreign athletes that they could be prosecuted under Chinese law if they criticize the government.

 

When it became clear that the government could not protect the safety and privacy of our athletes, thanks to the Biden administration’s inaction and incompetence, the president should have announced a total and complete boycott of the games. He should then have rallied the rest of the world to follow America’s lead, as it so often has. Instead, Joe Biden folded.

 

In yet another example of weakness and ineptitude, President Biden has kowtowed to China and placed our athletes in danger. For the next two weeks, their safety, security, and privacy will be in the bloodstained hands of the CCP.