China 2022 Olympics a chance to put pressure on Beijing on human rights – Canada

Beijing’s staging of the 2022 Winter Olympics offers affected countries the opportunity to back China on its human rights record, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

Trudeau said China would only change its behavior if faced with a united front, adding that he would raise the issue at a summit of Group of Seven leaders next week.

“The pressure on China right now from the international community (…)

“It would be easy for China (…) to ignore what any country, including the United States alone, is saying. But when the world community comes together, it starts to shape its own calculations.”

Canada, locked in a major diplomatic and trade dispute with China for more than two years, is one of the world’s leading winter sports countries.

Trudeau did not raise the issue of athletes staying away from the Games. The Canadian Olympic Committee opposes a boycott, saying it will not force a change in China’s human rights record.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month called for a US diplomatic boycott of the Games next year, citing the State Department finding that genocide of Uyghurs and others ethnic minorities takes place in China.

The Canadian parliament passed a non-binding motion in February claiming that China’s treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide. Read more

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