Coalition MPs call for boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

A group of conservative MPs are urging a diplomatic boycott of Beijing’s Winter Olympics.

Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan signed the letter calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games. Picture: Sean Davey

A group of conservative MPs are urging a diplomatic boycott of Beijing’s Winter Olympics Games next year to denounce China’s “litany of human rights abuses”.

As the curtain falls on the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Australian government faces an internal push by eight parliamentarians — including Liberal senator Eric Abetz and Nationals senator Matt Canavan — to boycott the international competition in February.

A diplomatic boycott means Australia would not send any government representatives or embassy officials to the Games, but Australian athletes and their support staff would still travel to Beijing.

A letter co-signed by the MPs was sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Sports Minister Richard Colbeck on Monday.

Eric Abetz. Picture: Gary Ramage

“The host country, led by its Communist Dictatorship, is responsible for a litany of human rights abuses. The most serious of these abuses occur in Xinjiang, where one million ethnic minority Uighurs languish in detention camps,” the letter reads.

“The situation there is increasingly labelled by human rights organisations, research institutes and national parliaments as genocide.”

The signatories to the letter also include NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Tasmanian Liberal senator Wendy Askew, Northern Territory Country Liberal Party senator Sam McMahon, Queensland Liberal senator James McGrath, South Australian Liberal senator David Fawcett and Queensland Liberal National Party MP George Christensen.

The letter urges Australia to join a group of 180 international and Australian-based diaspora community groups that have called on governments around the world to commit to a diplomatic boycott.

The community groups argue that sending officials to the games legitimates China’s repressive human rights abuses, particularly the treatment of Uighurs.

Last month, the British parliament voted unanimously to stage a diplomatic boycott of what MPs labelled China’s “Genocide Games”. The vote, which called on the British government to not send any representatives to the competition — including members of the royal family — is not binding.

The US Senate also passed a bill this month, which sanctions China for human rights abuses and includes a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games as part of a push for an end to the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses.

Earlier this month, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denounced the US pledge to boycott Beijing’s games.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper also warned that a boycott by Australia would “trigger strong resentment from the Chinese people” and have negative economic consequences.