China’s state-run Global Times published a summary of an interview with former President George W. Bush on Wednesday to discourage calls for a boycott of the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Opponents of the event note that China is the world’s largest and potentially most prolific human rights criminal, currently engaging in extreme repression of religion, free expression economic activity, and other basic indicators of free societies. Extensive evidence has led a growing number of countries in the free world, including the United States, to officially declare China guilty of genocide for the destruction of the Uyghur people of East Turkistan using mass sterilization, slavery, and concentration camp internments to stunt population growth in the region.
Given China’s recent history of abuse towards athletes — particularly the disappearance of tennis champion Peng Shuai over her accusation of rape against an Olympics official — those who support the Beijing Olympics boycott also argue that sending athletes to the Games places them at unnecessary risk of repression by the Chinese Communist Party. The Party itself confirmed those fears by warning last week that athletes could face police action if they express opinions that dissent from communist orthodoxy while in Beijing.
Most high-profile political leaders in the United States have not called for a boycott of the Olympics this year, but many of the few who have are Republicans. In an apparent attempt at persuading Republicans to embrace China as an Olympic host, the Global Times claimed on Wednesday that unnamed Chinese reporters had “dug out an interview with the then U.S. President George W. Bush” from 2008, when the president was in Beijing for that year’s Summer Olympics.
Bush attended a wide array of events in Beijing during the Games, taking friendly photos with American athletes participating in baseball, volleyball, swimming, basketball, and other sports. Bush notoriously dismissed human rights concerns in China and was largely absent from the global outrage surrounding Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion and colonization of two regions of Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which began on the first day of the Summer Games.
not surprising since his grandaddy made money working with the nazi’s. his daddy made money working with the commies, just doing what they do best! traitors!