大象传媒

The Winter Olympics will officially open in Beijing this Friday with around 3,000 athletes competing in 109 different events from 91 countries. China is accused of committing atrocities against the Uyghur Muslim population in the northwest province of Xinjiang. Beijing is also accused of restricting the freedom of people in Hong Kong through new legislation including the Hong Kong National Security Law. Because of China's human rights record, a number of countries have declared diplomatic boycotts of the Games - including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Ramila Chanisheff, an activist with Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women鈥檚 Association, Adelaide, describes her family's story. Her family was blacklisted during the Cultural Revolution and left China in 1979, finally settling in Australia. She says that many relatives in China have blocked them on their phones and devices, particularly if they are younger, possibly because their communication is being monitored. For those that she still communicates with, she does so on a different phone. She says that some of the young relatives have disappeared, and they don't know what has happened to them.

"For me, [the Games] are horrific. When you know that just a few thousand kilometres away, millions of people are in concentration camps, in labour camps, abused, tortured, raped, children separated from their families - and yet the rest of the world is watching [the Games]."

Credit: Protest against the China's treatment towards the ethnic Uyghur people and calling for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Jakarta, Indonesia January 2022 Credit: Reuters

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