December 8, 2021
Australia’s best-known Winter Olympian, Steven Bradbury, has called for Australia to announce a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games, criticising its use of Uighurs as “human slaves” and warning “if we don’t stand up to China they will take over the world”.
Scott Morrison, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Sports Minister Richard Colbeck were considering Australia’s options on Tuesday after the Biden administration confirmed the US would not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Games in February.
They face growing pressure to back the US, with the head of the parliament’s intelligence and security committee, James Paterson, also urging the Prime Minister to take a stand against China’s “unconscionable human rights abuses”.
Bradbury, the former speed skater who famously won Australia’s first winter gold medal in 2002 when all his opponents fell over before the finish, said Australia’s athletes should be able to compete, but China’s behaviour should be met by an appropriate international protest.
“You can’t take away an athlete’s dreams,” he said. “But if China isn’t going to act in a way so that we can all live together on planet Earth and if China is going to continue to put tariffs on our products and try to hamstring us, then we need to act.
“It has become glaringly obvious that China’s mission is to take over the world, and more and more people are starting to understand that,” he said.
Bradbury, who now runs beer label Last Man Standing, said Australian consumers should also take a stand against the authoritarian regime by avoiding Chinese products. “Who knows how many Uighurs are being treated as human slaves doing their manufacturing? If we continue to not support Australian-owned products then it aids China,” he said.
Senator Paterson and Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching, the Australian co-chairs for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, wrote to Mr Morrison after the US decision, saying it would be “inappropriate” for Australian ministers or officials, including ambassador to China Graham Fletcher, to attend the Beijing Games.
They cited credible cases of “genocide and crimes against humanity” by the Chinese government against Uighurs and other Muslim Turkic groups in Xinjiang, including “internment of at least one million individuals, widespread forced labour and mass forced sterilisation”.
Their letter, obtained by The Australian, also referenced Beijing’s crackdowns on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
“Against this background, it is unthinkable that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics should continue as normal,” the senators said.
“It is right that sport should stay above politics, but this does not permit turning a blind eye to grave human rights abuses.
“Public figures attending the Games risk acting as willing participants in the PRC government’s propaganda campaign.”
It is understood neither Senator Colbeck nor Mr Fletcher will attend the Games. However, a decision is yet to be made on whether the government will go as far as announcing an official diplomatic boycott.
Senior government sources said the government was weighing the possibility for further economic coercion against Australia if it announced such a move, against the need to take a clear national position.
It is understood the government is also waiting for other like-minded nations to decide whether they will join the US, which would give Australia greater cover if it backs the protest.
Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and the European Union have all been considering a diplomatic boycott. Australia’s hosting of the 2032 Summer Olympics is also a factor in the decision, amid fears of future retaliatory action.
There is ongoing anger within the government over China’s $20bn in punitive trade bans against Australian exports, and its detention of Australian citizens Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei on trumped-up spy charges.
But unlike the US government and the Canadian and Dutch parliaments, Australia has previously stopped short of branding China’s human rights abuses “genocide”.
Announcing the US boycott, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki cited China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuse”.
“The athletes on team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 per cent as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the Games,” she added.
Beijing warned of “resolute countermeasures” against the US, describing the decision as “a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people”.
“The US should follow the Olympic spirit of ‘together’ and stop politicising sports and the diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 lest it would affect China-US dialogue and co-operation on key areas,” Chinese foreign affairs spokesman Lijian Zhao said.
Asked recently about the prospect of an Australian diplomatic boycott, Mr Zhao warned the Morrison government against “political stunts”.
China has also sought to undermine such diplomatic protests by saying foreign officials had not even been invited to the Games.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said under Olympic protocol, the organisers would have only invited Mr Fletcher if the Prime Minister or Governor-General were attending. “I’m not sure how there can be a diplomatic boycott if we are not invited,” he said.’
