'The Genocide Games': Human Rights Activists Call for Boycott of Beijing Olympics With Protests and Prayer

Activists who are passionate about human rights are speaking out against the 2022 Beijing Olympics due to the crimes against humanity taking place throughout communist China.

Many are opposing the winter games to raise awareness of the horrifying treatment toward the Uyghur people group and other ethnic minorities in China. Protesters are pushing for athletes not to participate in what some have called "The Genocide Games."

One letter from the International Tibet Network challenges athletes to consider whether a medal holds more value than human life.

"Surely human life is worth more than medals? We urge you to choose the right side and stand against genocide. Millions of Uyghurs are locked away in concentration camps suffering torture, rape, forced sterilization, and even death," the letter reads.

"Tibetan children, as young as four-years-old, are being removed from their parents and sent into colonial boarding schools, forced into political reeducation classes designed to strip them of their Tibetan identity. And in Hong Kong, freedom and democratic rights have been turned to dust as people young and old are imprisoned for simply pressing to uphold freedoms."

As CBN News has previously reported, activists and religious rights experts say China's communist regime has been violating the rights of the Uyghurs, enslaving, killing, and abusing them, forcing them into "re-education" camps on a massive scale. 

Since the spring of 2017, China has been transferring Uyghurs living in China's Xinjiang province into so-called re-education camps that international observers call modern-day concentration camps.

Athletes Urged Against Bringing Cellphones

Athletes who plan to attend the games have also been warned about the possibility of digital surveillance and malicious software while in China.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee is urging Team USA to use disposable or "burner" phones rather than bring their own mobile devices to China.

Earlier this month, CBN News reported that the communist regime in Beijing is using its public opinion analysis software, normally used to catch politically sensitive information online, to gather data about overseas critics using social media platforms like U.S.- based Twitter and Facebook.

An announcement was made in December, stating that "every device, communication, transaction, and online activity may be monitored. Your device(s) may also be compromised with malicious software, which could negatively impact future use." 

Congressman Protests and Prays for Genocide Olympics

One prominent U.S. lawmaker demonstrated his support for a boycott of the Winter Olympics by holding a rally at the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. 

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) recently spoke before a crowd in protest and prayer against the event.

"These are Xi Jinping's Genocide Games, held in a nation that places its own people in concentration camps, forcing ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kirghiz to labor in slavery," Smith said.

He also called attention to the companies that will profit from the Olympics.

"We must call out sponsors like the Coca-Cola Company, which virtue signals when it comes to protesting common-sense laws designed to curb voter fraud in Georgia, but then turns a blind eye to the harvesting of organs of Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners," the congressman stated. "We must call out NBC, which will broadcast the Genocide Games but refuses to say whether it will cover those athletes who raise their voices in protest to the vile human rights abuses of Xi Jinping and the Communist Party."

Smith continued, "Finally, our voices are raised in prayer. We pray first and foremost, for the oppressed, those who languish in prison and labor in concentration camp factories. And we pray that the evildoers repent. We pray for a change of heart among those in positions of power in the Chinese government, that they renounce the wickedness of Communism, and come to realize the meaning of true brotherhood and sisterhood," he said.

Meanwhile, rights groups have met with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and have been told the Olympic body must stay politically "neutral." They have been told by the IOC that China has given "assurances" about human rights conditions.

Last year, the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement called on President Biden to act upon the Trump administration's "genocide" designation against China by introducing that declaration at the UN Security Council and prosecuting China's diplomats in the U.S.

And at one point, Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly expressed his agreement with the Trump administration's determination that China's treatment of its Uyghur and Turkic peoples was genocide. 

The winter Olympics are scheduled to begin on Feb. 4.