Bad Things Still Happen When the Spotlight Fades

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have put a spotlight on China’s treatment of the Uyghurs and increased the pressure on countries to take decisive actions against the alleged human rights abuses.  Once the Olympics end and the spotlight fades, countries must continue to take a stand against China’s abuses.

            The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority group who primarily live in Xinjiang, a northwestern region of China.[1]  In 2017, China began building mass-detention centers which have been used to hold between one and three million Uyghurs.[2]  There have been reports that prisoners in the camps are subjected to torture, forced labor and involuntary sterilization.[3]  China has repeatedly denied these accusations and claim that the centers were for vocational training to re-educate the Uyghurs and fight extremism.[4]  China has pointed to incidents such as the deadly knife attacks at a railway station which were blamed on separatists from Xinjiang as justification for the centers.[5]

            According to the Genocide Convention, genocide means “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: killing members of a specific group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, imposing measures to prevent births, forcibly transferring children from one group to another, and creating conditions to destroy the group.”[6]  In January 2021, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the Chinese government was committing genocide because of their treatment of the Uyghurs.[7]  Following the declaration by the United States, the governments of Canada, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Belgium, the U.K. and the Netherlands all passed motions either declaring that China was committing genocide against the Uyghurs or that the serious risk of genocide existed.[8]  This designation could lead the countries to impose sanctions on China.[9]

            The Winter Olympics poses a difficult problem for countries who have spoken out against China’s human rights abuses, but who want to avoid conflict.  In early December, the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics.[10]  American athletes will still compete in the Games, but no U.S. government officials will attend.[11]  Several countries have followed suit and also announced a diplomatic boycott.[12]  However, some critics have pointed out that this action is largely symbolic as it calls attention to the issue but does not constitute punitive action against China.[13]

            The United States has taken additional steps by signing into law the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act.  This law “bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless the importer can prove they were not made with forced labor.”[14]  The legislation applies to “all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part” in Xinjiang.[15] Although the law helps address the human rights abuses against the Uyghur, it does not address the larger problem of forced labor practices outside the region and across the rest of China.[16]

            While the Olympics have intensified the pressure on countries to act against China’s alleged human rights abuses, it is important that countries continue to speak out after the Olympics have ended and until China stops its crimes against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs.

Sydney Glazer is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLV.

This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.
—

[1] See Noreen O’Donnell, What’s Behind the Calls for an Olympic Boycott, NBC (Jan. 31, 2022), https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/whats-behind-the-calls-for-an-olympic-boycott/2743839/.

[2] See Lorraine Boissoneault, Is China Committing Genocide Against the Uyghurs?, Smithsonian Magazine (Feb. 2, 2022), https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/is-china-committing-genocide-against-the-uyghurs-180979490/.

[3] See Noreen O’Donnell, What’s Behind the Calls for an Olympic Boycott, NBC (Jan. 31, 2022), https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/whats-behind-the-calls-for-an-olympic-boycott/2743839/.

[4] See id.

[5] See id.

[6] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Dec. 11, 1948, 78 U.N.T.S. 277, Art. 2.

[7] See Boissoneault, supra note 2.  

[8] See id.

[9] See Lindsay Maizland, China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Council on Foreign Relations (March 1, 2021), https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-repression-uyghurs-xinjiang.

[10] See Boissoneault, supra note 2.  

[11] See Id.

[12] See id.

[13] See id.

[14] Felicia Sonmez, Biden signs Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law, The Washington Post, Dec. 23, 2021.

[15] id.

[16] See Cullen S. Hendrix & Marcus Noland, The US response to forced labor by Uyghurs in China is constructive but incomplete, Peterson Inst. for Int’l Econ., (Dec. 23, 2021), https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/us-response-forced-labor-uyghurs-china-constructive-incomplete.