We, the People, propose that all concerned with human rights abuses reduce or outright refuse to watch the broadcast of the Olympic games being held in China in February 2022, and also refrain from purchasing products and services from companies sponsoring the Games.

Why?

Because it is way past time to hold both the ethically challenged IOC and repressive autocracies to account. Government boycotts - participation and diplomatic - while symbolic, have not had any meaningful effect. Now we the people must act.  And the two languages that the IOC, its sponsors, and host countries will understand are: 1) money; and 2) public repudiation.

Acting together, freedom-loving and free-thinking citizens of the world are powerful. If broadcasters suffer ratings losses and sponsors suffer revenue losses – will they be so eager to defend the host country this time around, and to pay up next time, when the games are held in countries with repressive regimes? For the 2022 Winter Games, there were only two bidders after Oslo, Norway pulled out due to the costs: Beijing, China and Almaty, Kazakhstan.  As The Atlantic notes:

…perhaps the primary reason the IOC hasn’t excluded autocracies from the Games is because it’s simply not in the Committee’s interest to do so. According to a 2017 report … “keeping good working relations with authoritarian governments helps the IOC to secure the future of its main revenue driver, the Olympic Games, thus providing for its own future.” Put simply, partnering with autocracies pays.

The IOC defends its actions based on remaining “neutral” on all political issues, and favoring "engagement". How noble. And convenient.  Or, as then International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board member Gian-Carlo Kasper observed in 2017:  "For us, everything is easier in dictatorships." We, the People, are under no such obligation to ignore human rights abuses.

Imagine the effect of a viewership and sponsor boycott on the host country – in this case, China. China's motivation for hosting the Winter Olympics is to create a showcase for China’s “rise” and distract the world’s attention from their actions against Hong Kong, Tibet, Uighurs, Taiwan; their pillaging and corruption of African and Asian countries with debt trap capital projects; their treatment of the religious of all creeds in China (crosses removed, mosques disfigured or closed); the censorship and surveillance of its own 1.2 billion people to ensure “correct thought” and pretend Tiananmen never happened; the  stonewalling of the Covid investigation in Wuhan, flagrant violations of trade agreements and accepted trade practices, forced intellectual property transfer, rejection of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruling on the “nine-dash line” and the militarization of disputed islands and bullying of its Asian neighbors - the list is, literally, endless. Not to mention Peng Shuai and artists such as Ai Wei Wei - silenced and erased from social media for the crime of speaking some inconvenient truths.

The Beijing games are an opportunity for all who respect fundamental human rights to stand together on the right side of history, and have an impact. We can speak as well for the people of China and other repressive regimes who yearn for the freedoms denied them, but dare not raise their voices. And, this boycott is not like prior boycotts, in which one government trades critiques with another. This time, we, the People, are speaking up. Let the athletes compete – they have earned our admiration and the right. But by our doing just a little – foregoing a few hours of TV time and avoiding some products - we can and will be heard, for the good of all humankind. Please: sign the petition, join the boycott.