Boycotting the location of the Olympics because it is in China is a tough call, especially when there’s a good enough cause to boycott the location if human rights are being violated due to China’s dictatorship. Perhaps there is a fear that if the location isn’t boycotted, a particular country may look like they support a or that they must not oppose China’s human rights violations due to its dictatorship. However, I am not sure that every Chinese citizen is for having a dictatorship or is violating human rights and may not have the option of leaving China. And why should they be penalized for having to live in a country because of something that’s hard to change?
This particular article says issues like this shouldn’t be left up to athletes to take on issues that should be left up to governments to handle meaning such political issues like this isn’t a place in the Olympics, that there are other ways/options to handle this paricular concern (I suppose if an athlete wants to boycott on a personal level, that’s one thing…) The article also states politics like this don’t belong in such an event and that these athletes work very hard to get to the Olympics.
A rhetorical question I ask is this: Is boycotting the Olympics being in China going to fix a problem that’s be around for a long time? Or not? Will it change anything? Even a little? Will it cause us to be a little more aware of what’s going on in China if we were to boycott having the Olympics there? Or will it cause more issues with China if the world boycotted the Olympics and the location was changed? What was the end result to past boycotts on the location of previous Olympics? (OK. that’s more than one rehetorical question).
But I thought the point Olympics was to bring everyone together? I do realize in the Olympics it’s a competition in various sports. But it’s not a place or a time to add conflict to an already potential hazardous situation.
U.S., Canadian and British Olympic Committees Don’t Support 2022 Beijing Boycott (msn.com)