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House passes bills to pressure China amid Olympic boycott

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The House on Wednesday passed measures to exert diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government and International Olympic Committee (IOC) for alleged failures to uphold human …
The House on Wednesday passed measures to exert diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government and International Olympic Committee (IOC) for alleged failures to uphold human rights as the U.S. urges allies to join its official boycott of the 2022 games in Beijing. Passage of three separate bills addressing the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims and tennis player Peng Shuai come after the Biden administration announced earlier this week that it will not send any government officials to the Winter Olympic Games in February. Since then, the governments of Australia, Britain, Lithuania and Canada have also said they’ll join the U.S.-led diplomatic boycott. Athletes from all of those nations can still compete in the Olympic Games, however. “If we do not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial or economic ties, we lose all moral authority to speak out against human rights violations anywhere in the world,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Lawmakers first passed a bill,428-1, that would prohibit imports from China’s Xinjiang region, where the government is accused of holding Uyghur Muslims in forced labor camps, as well as sanction officials involved in human rights abuses. Another resolution, adopted 427-1, formally condemns “the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity being committed against” Uyghur Muslims and other religious minorities by the Chinese government and urges the president to call upon the United Nations to investigate the allegations. And a third measure, adopted 428-0, puts the House on record with the position that the International Olympic Committee is “legitimizing” the Chinese government’s claims about the safety of Peng, a Chinese tennis player who disappeared from public view after alleging that she was sexually assaulted by a former top Communist Party official.

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