WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released the following statement on the start of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing:

“Today our nation’s Olympic athletes will be on the world stage for this year’s Winter Games,” Wicker said. “I know they will make our nation proud. I wish them all the best of luck as they compete for gold.”

“The Olympics are an opportunity for the countries of the world to showcase the best that the international community has to offer, but this year is different. China, the host nation, is a genocidal regime that has targeted Uyghurs, Christians, Falun Gong, Tibetans, and political dissidents for persecution. Even ethnic Chinese citizens are not immune to President Xi Jinping’s crushing authoritarian leadership.”

“It is unfortunate that the world must participate in an Olympics stained by China’s cruelty and aggression. I ask our athletes to remain vigilant, and I urge the International Olympic Committee never again to award the Olympics to a nation with a pattern of human rights abuses like China.”

In January 2021, the Department of State announced that it had found that China is actively committing genocide against its population of Uyghur Muslims in the western province of Xinjiang. There are reportedly more than 2 million Uyghurs in concentration camps, and millions more political and religious minorities suffering crackdowns, imprisonment, and torture at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. Several cosponsors of the Olympics are Chinese companies that use Uyghur slave labor or work closely with the Chinese military.

Read more about Senator Wicker’s recent work on standing up to China here and here.