With the Winter Olympics only three months away, the United States is facing a rapidly approaching deadline about what to do regarding the host country: China.
The Biden administration has previously spoken about the possibility of a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games, which are scheduled to take place from Feb. 4-20, and there have been reports an announcement could be made as soon as this week.
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who played in the NFL before running for Congress, called the decision about a possible diplomatic boycott “a no-brainer,” in an interview with the Washington Examiner. He referenced the genocide, as deemed by both the Trump and Biden administrations, that the Chinese government is committing against the Uyghurs.
MAJORITY BELIEVE CHINA IS US’S BIGGEST THREAT, WHILE CONFIDENCE IN MILITARY HAS PLUMMETED: POLL
“I think you have a choice. Are you tacitly supporting the regime and the human rights violations, or are you willing to publicly rebuke them? I think, as Americans, as the leader of the free world, we need to be publicly rebuking the way that the Chinese Communist Party abuses their own people,” he explained. “I think this is a very simple concept.”
The Ohio lawmaker, who spent five seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, also spoke about the decisions Olympic athletes have to make about whether they should participate in the games.
“We’re in an age where individual athletes are taking stands on important issues that are important to them, and my personal view is we should leave it up to the individual athlete to decide whether they want to go compete or not,” Gonzalez added. “Being able to participate in the Olympics would be, I would imagine, the honor of everyone’s life.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who also spent much of his adult life in athletics, told the Washington Examiner that the athletes should participate because “people don’t realize what athletes do to train” for the Olympics, and he said they should “win as much as [they] possibly can.”
“This is not something that’s emboldened China,” the former Auburn football coach added. “This is something that we can embold ourselves to go over and say, ‘Listen, we’re not skipping anybody.’ You know, we’re going, and we’re going in there, and we’re going to show people who the best athletes in the world are in the Winter Olympics.”
They are not the only lawmakers who have spoken out about the Olympics.
“We don’t want the Chinese Communist Party to pocket a massive propaganda victory. Authoritarian regimes have a long history of doing this using it to whitewash human rights abuses: Sochi 2014, Beijing 2008, Berlin 1936,” Rep. Mike Gallagher said on Fox News on Friday. “That’s what we’re talking about here. So, we want to avoid that. At a minimum, however, I think we should … proceed with a boycott. A diplomatic boycott is not enough, in my opinion, and it seems the Biden administration is waffling on that right now.”
One strategy the U.S. should pursue moving forward, Gonzalez said, is to start “pressuring the [International Olympic Committee] to either move the games or ensure that we don’t put any more games in China, summer or winter, going forward until they make major concessions.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The IOC’s decision to award China another Olympics stands in sharp contrast to the actions of the Women’s Tennis Association, which recently announced that it will be pulling its tournaments from the country following the situation surrounding tennis player Peng Shuai.
Peng, a three-time Olympian and former top-ranked doubles player, disappeared on Nov. 3 after she made a post on social media accusing a former CCP official, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault. The post was deleted about a half-hour after it was posted.
Her whereabouts and well-being have been murky since she made the allegation, and the international community has spoken out publicly to call for her safety.
