WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) hosted a virtual roundtable on boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Senator Blackburn was joined by former NBA player Royce White, China expert and author Gordon Chang, policy advisor at Hong Kong Watch Joey Siu, and interim president for International Campaign for Tibet Bhuchung Tsering.

Click here to view.

The Quid Quo Pro Between The U.S. And Beijing Is Evident

“I think that this entire relationship between the United States and the CCP is one of corporatocracy and authoritarianism, and ultimately, the quid pro quo between us is evident. I think our athletes have embraced that. We have this kind of public commercial woke sports culture that suggests that all of these athletes have a deep care about human rights, but from being an athlete and watching the culture over the last few years and many years before that, it would seem to me that what's most important to athletes is to survive in a pro sports world. That survival was predicated on not challenging the status quo.” —  Royce White, Former NBA Player

Human Rights Abuses Increased Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics

“Beijing, in order to get the rights to host the 2008 Summer Games, actually made all these promises on human rights, on freedom of the press, and an array of other issues. Even before the games, but especially afterwards, Beijing dishonored those promises. We saw increased repression in places like Tibet. We talk about the genocide and the crimes against humanity against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic, but we have to remember that those techniques were actually developed and refined in Tibet prior to 2017 and that happened right after the 2008 Olympics. We're seeing the same dynamic today with these Olympics, with the promises that were made to the International Olympic Committee, they're now being dishonored. We know that Beijing is going to use these games to legitimize itself and to say to the world that ‘nobody cares about human rights,” that ‘Chinese communism is great.’ So it's to our shame that we have these games in Beijing after the 2008 Summer Olympics.” – Gordon G. Chang, Author and China Expert

Now Is A Golden Opportunity To Expose The Chinese Communist Party

“As the 2022 genocide games commence in Beijing, we're actually having the whole world's attention centered on the Chinese Communist Party, on Beijing right now. It is a golden opportunity for us human rights activists, for us Hong Hongkongers, to expose the Chinese Communist Party’s atrocities against our own people, not only in Hong Kong, but then also in Tibet, East Turkestan, and elsewhere across the regions of China. [We are] actually seeing how the international Olympics committee and also the other pro-Beijing corporations have been colluding with Beijing.” — Joey Siu, Policy Advisor at Hong Kong Watch

Communist China Wants To Erase Tibetans

“The distinct Tibetan culture and Tibetan civilization are no longer in existence in Tibet. In its place, we have a Chinese version that makes Tibetan Buddhism subservient to the Chinese Communist Party, makes the Tibetan people subservient to the government's rule, makes the Tibetan land serve the interest of the Chinese Communist Party. So therefore, the Chinese authorities are trying to turn transform Tibetans into Chinese to serve their interest.” – Bhuchung Tsering, Interim President for International Campaign for Tibet