A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Friday called on the International Olympic Committee to postpone the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and relocate the event unless China ends what the United States deems an ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Jim McGovern were joined by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Chris Smith in a letter saying that no Olympics should be held in a country "whose government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity."
"We have seen no evidence that the IOC has taken any steps to press the Chinese government to change its behavior," the lawmakers — all commissioners on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China — said in the letter addressed to IOC chief Thomas Bach.