NEW YORK (February 4, 2022) — As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kick off today, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) remains strongly committed to condemning the Chinese dictatorship’s attempt to whitewash its dismal human rights record, including the ongoing genocide of the Uyghur population. Yesterday, on the eve of the Games, HRF co-hosted a peaceful demonstration in front of the Capitol in Washington, DC to denounce the systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and call attention to the complicity of corporate sponsors and the International Olympics Committee (IOC).
Speaking to an audience of journalists, leading activists, and nonprofit organizations, HRF Senior Strategy and Research Associate Jenny Wang delivered remarks underscoring the IOC’s lack of moral conscience, and emphasizing the importance of individuals living in democratic nations standing in solidarity with all those suffering under the CCP’s oppression.
“With its abysmal human rights record and history of broken promises, Beijing should never have been awarded the opportunity to host these Games,” said HRF Senior Strategy and Research Associate Jenny Wang. “Yet, time and time again, we have seen the appalling complicity of the IOC, and its refusal to stand on the right side of history.”
Additionally, HRF worked with exiled Chinese dissident artist and Havel Prize Laureate Badiucao to showcase his five-piece Beijing 2022 Collection, which was initially released at the 2021 Oslo Freedom Forum in Miami, along with three never-before-seen pieces evoking imagery of the iconic ‘Tank Man’ from the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, highlighting the Chinese government’s internet censorship, and portraying the impunity of police brutality.
Other co-hosts of the #NoBeijing2022 rally in DC included: Campaign for Uyghurs, ChinaAid, Dialogue China, Hong Kong Democracy Council, Hong Kong Watch, International Campaign for Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, Uyghur American Association, Uyghur Human Rights Project, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and World Uyghur Congress.
Learn more here about Badiucao’s NFT project, first launched on February 1, featuring his Beijing 2022 Collection of five original works of art that depict the Chinese government’s oppression. Ten percent of proceeds will be donated to the Art in Protest Residency program, a collaboration between HRF and the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.
Read HRF’s report, 100 Years of Suppression: The CCP’s Strategies in Tibet, the Uyghur Region, and Hong Kong, to learn more about the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese government.
Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. For interview requests of further comment, please e-mail media@hrf.org.