Former United Nations Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has joined a growing number of people calling for the United States to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.
“If the United States had known what Nazi Germany would become, would we have participated in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics?” Haley wrote. “This is not a historical head-scratcher. The answer bears directly on next year’s Winter Olympics in Communist China.”
A growing number of Republican politicians are calling for President Joe Biden to boycott next year’s games, or for the International Olympic Committee to move them out of Beijing.
They cite numerous reports of human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in the country, including the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang, which the Trump administration designated a genocide.
In Thursday’s op-ed, Haley said China’s direction “is already clear” and noted that it could soon become a modern-day Nazi Germany.
“Long ago, it trampled the people of Tibet. Recently, it wiped out Hong Kong’s freedom. It makes near-daily threats against democratic Taiwan. Its systematic and determined cover-up of the origins of COVID-19 led to the worst public health crisis in a century,” she said.
“Given Communist China’s direction, it could soon become what Nazi Germany was in the 1940s. It is not a country the United States should glorify through participation in the Winter Olympics,” Haley added.
“Today, I asked @POTUS to meet with me to discuss Communist China’s horrific human rights abuses & my call to move the 2022 @Olympics out of Beijing. The U.S. must stand as a champion for human rights & hold Communist China accountable for its crimes,” Scott wrote.
However, Scott said he wanted to make very clear that the United States cannot simply boycott the games, as this would hurt athletes who have spent their lives training for the event.
“This is about human rights, which we all have a responsibility to address,” he added.