The Telegraph, 16 July, Iain Duncan Smith MP
In July 2015, the International Olympic Committee handed China a near-priceless propaganda coup: the opportunity to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Now, as the games draw closer, it is up to those of us in the West concerned about China’s disrespect for human rights, international aggression and rampant despotism to make clear that we will not stand for it.
On Thursday in the House of Commons, MPs joined a growing chorus of activists by calling on the Government to boycott the event. Thus far, Ministers have not listened, claiming that it is not their place to get involved in sport. The reality is that this is about far more than ski jumps and ice skating.
At the heart of this demand is the terrible and growing evidence of systematic, government-organised human rights abuses being perpetrated against the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region. Evidence gleaned from Chinese official documents, backed up by harrowing human testimony from the Uyghur tribunal in London, have served to show that the Chinese government is engaged in what is likely to be genocide.
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