Less than a month before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics open, a series of celebrations have begun in Xinjiang, the same place where millions of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are facing horrific abuses including forced sterilization, systematic rape and arbitrary detention. 

Democracies and human rights in many countries across the world felt that it is more crucial than ever that we show solidarity and support each other. As one of the largest countries in the world, China has a big role to play in shaping human history. Human Rights groups have been urging the global community that let’s all do what we can to create a free and just future for ALL!

Meanwhile, TV networks are paying billions of dollars to broadcast the Games, and those deals are the Olympic Games’ main funding sources. The US broadcaster NBC alone contributes 40 per cent of the International Olympic Committee’s income. With this leverage and the millions of viewers it reaches, NBC is highly influential both at home and in the IOC offices.

Dozens of governments have decided to boycott the Games. Human Rights groups are asking that it’s now time for the private sector to take action! NBC’s CEO Mr. Shell has won an award from a group that “promotes freedom and tolerance of all religions and cultures”, so let’s challenge him to fulfill this honor! Join the global outcry today and demand NBC and other broadcasters cancel the broadcasting which will help Chinese leaders project a rosy image of their human rights abuses!

China is advertising Beijing 2022 as an “inclusive and open” event to “create a harmonious world”. Yet what the Chinese government has done to the Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, #MeToo survivors, journalists and human rights lawyers is the exact opposite of harmonious, and it has made the society under its rule anything but inclusive and open.

By broadcasting and sponsoring Beijing 2022, companies like Coca-cola, Airbnb, Toyota, NBC and BBC are complicit in Beijing’s tactics to “sportswash” its serious human rights abuses. If they withdraw their support, they can refuse to fund a coverup for one of the worst dictatorships in our time.

The human rights abuses going on in China are horrific, but we now have an opportunity to send a clear message that the world will not tolerate governments and companies that profit from occupation, genocide, and human rights violations.