Olympic organizers have again rejected claims of human rights abuses towards Uighur Muslims
Beijing Olympic Games spokesperson Yan Jiarong has denied claims that Uighur Muslims are being mistreated by Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang region of the country, while also asserting that Taiwan is a part of China.
Yan, formerly a member of China’s delegation to the UN general assembly, said that she was against what she referred to as the “politicizing of sports” when grilled at the Beijing Olympics on allegations of Uighur Muslims being held in forced-labor camps.
“I think these questions are based on lies,” said Yan in response to a query about the IOC’s stance on reports of concentrations camps in the territory in northwest China.
“Some authorities have already disputed such false information with a lot of solid evidence. You are very welcome to refer to all that evidence and facts.”
Human rights groups, along with governments such as those in the US, Great Britain and Canada have alleged that more than 1 million Uighur, an ethnic minority in China, are being held against their will and subject to forced labor and even sterilization.
China has repeatedly denied those allegations, although the claims were used as part of the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics announced by several governments, led by the US, prior to the start of the event.
Political issues have largely receded into the background throughout the Olympics but were again raised in the joint press conference between the IOC and their Beijing hosts.
Yan later doubled-down on the stance that questions about the supposed mistreatment of the Uighur population were based on a false premise.
“This is not the relevant department,” she said. “The foreign ministry and other ministries have released lots and lots of facts and data to refute these kind of allegations.”
IOC presidential spokesperson Mark Adams added a counter-balance of sorts, saying that Yan’s view was “not relevant” and dismissed suggestions that Olympics uniforms were made by Uighurs, or from materials sourced from the region, saying that Yan’s statement was “not particularly relevant to the press conference or the IOC” and that they were “very concerned about protecting human rights within our sphere of the Olympic Games.
“We leave it to other organizations, the United Nations, other organizations, to look at other aspects outside of what is happening here,” he added.
“The Games themselves bring a great deal of benefit to the world in terms of showing how people can work together and bring a shared feeling about what the world could be like.
“Even administrations around the world who have boycotted these Games politically understand the importance of having ways of reaching out, talking and having areas of cooperation.
“Bringing the world together is even more important at a time like this when there is such dispute and there can be areas of discussion and debate.”
Despite the IOC’s call for the Olympics to be free from politics, Yan also underscored the Chinese government’s position on Taiwan: “[It] is an undividable part of China. This is a well-recognized international principle and well recognized in the international community.
“We are always against the idea of politicizing the Olympic Games. IOC has 206 members including People’s Republic China National Olympic Committee, including Chinese Taipei, the original Olympic Committee.”
