Wexton Announces Support for a Boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games

Press Release

Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), called for the United States to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics, which is being hosted in Beijing. The remarks came during a joint hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to examine the implications of holding the XXIV Winter Olympiad in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in light of the country's egregious human rights record.

"It's clear to me that we need to step up the pressure, and I agree with the calls to boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics games. I don't see how we can participate while the host nation is committing genocide," said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. "One of the reasons I asked to be on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China was so that I could be a voice for the Uyghur Muslim community, many of whom call my district home. Their families in Xinjiang are being arbitrarily detained and subject to forced labor, sterilizations, sexual assault -- some of the worst crimes against humanity that you can think of -- all at the hands of the CCP. One of the most frustrating things for me the past few years has been watching the abuses grow in scale and brutality. And despite overwhelming evidence of draconian population control measures being used against Uyghurs -- including forced sterilizations, forced abortions, and rape -- the CCP has been undeterred."

Congresswoman Wexton is a member of both the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

In March, Wexton reintroduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act, which would require publicly traded companies to have a full understanding of their supply chains and report any links to Xinjiang forced labor as part of their annual disclosure to investors.

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