FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 27 July 2021
Contact:
Pema Doma | +1-617-792-3606 | PemaDoma@studentsforafreetibet.org
Dorjee Tseten | +91 7807885951 Dorjee@studentsforafreetibet.org
WASHINGTON DC, July 27th—Today, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing on the Corporate Sponsorship of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The Commission invited the U.S.-based companies who sponsor the Olympics to this hearing to address how they will “manage the material and reputational risks of being associated with an Olympic Games held in the midst of a genocide.”
Representatives from Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Intel, Procter & Gamble, and Visa, all spoke at the hearing and tried to justify their companies’ decisions to sponsor the Olympics despite the brutal occupation in Tibet, Uyghur genocide, and ongoing crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong.
Co-Chair of the CECC and Member of Congress, Jim McGovern, chaired the meeting and asked companies why they cannot simply ask the IOC to postpone the games:
“Unless things change quickly the Beijing olympics will be held under a cloud of genocide. We ask you all: will you treat this as business as usual? We ask whether you’re willing to stand up for universal values and use your leverage against genocide and crimes against humanity? If we can delay an Olympics for a year because of a pandemic…we certainly can delay it for a year because of a genocide.”
Students for a Free Tibet’s Campaigns Director, Pema Doma, tuned into the hearing virtually in Washington DC. Before and after this hearing, Pema and other SFT staff and interns have been meeting with multiple members of Congress on behalf of the No Beijing 2022 campaign.
“As a Worldwide Olympic Partners, these corporations have leverage with the International Olympic Committee, but they refuse to remove their sponsorship of Beijing 2022 and refuse to call on the IOC to move, cancel, or even postpone the games. If Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Intel, and the other companies present today want us to believe they truly care about human rights, they must immediately cut ties with the Olympics until they are moved from outside of China. That being said, the fact that the CECC held this hearing today, shows that our campaign against Beijing 2022 is succeeding here in the US. I am hopeful that we will continue to make progress as more and more people wake up to the horrific reality of the Genocide Games.”
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