JULY 27, 2015 9:53 AM July 27, 2015 9:53 am
Construction last winter at the Genting Grand Secret Garden ski resort in Hebei Province, where some sports events will take place if Beijing succeeds in its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.Credit Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times
With just days to go before the International Olympic Committee decides whether Almaty, Kazakhstan, or Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, human rights advocates are waging a vigorous campaign to dissuade the committee from choosing China, citing a widening crackdown on rights defense lawyers, political activists and ethnic minorities.
Groups such as Human Rights Watch have criticized the committee, which will decide the host city in a secret ballot on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as not seriously considering the Internet censorship and government repression that has intensified since Beijing hosted the Summer Games in 2008. A petition released by prominent Chinese rights advocates on Friday said choosing China would contradict the Olympics’ stated goal of “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”
Then there is the argument made by Golog Jigme, a 46-year-old exiled Tibetan Buddhist monk who is making a personal appeal to Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee’s president, explaining how the committee’s decisions can affect ordinary people and embolden a government that is increasingly inured to criticism of its human rights record.
In 2008, Golog Jigme said, he was detained and tortured after helping to produce a documentary, “Leaving Fear Behind,” that explored the mixed sentiments of ordinary Tibetans in the prelude to the 2008 Summer Games. The film’s co-producer, Dhondup Wangchen, was released last year after serving six years in prison on charges of subversion.
On July 17, Golog Jigme, now living in Switzerland, sent a letter to Mr. Bach asking if he could make his appeal face to face.
“I would very much like to show you the film in person so you can see for yourself how the Tibetan people suffer under Chinese rule, hear them speak about what they thought about the 2008 Games taking being given to China when the human rights situation for them is so awful,” he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times.
As of Monday, Mr. Bach, who also lives in Switzerland, had yet to respond.
Golog Jigme said in an interview that he was troubled that the International Olympic Committee would award the Winter Games to Beijing after the Chinese government broke promises it made during its earlier bid for the Olympics.
At the time, China assured the committee that it would improve press freedom, honor its international human rights commitments and even allow protests during the games. Although foreign journalists were given unfiltered Internet access at the official media center in Beijing, the government vigorously censored negative news about the games and security officials made sure that the designated protest zones set up around the city were empty. (Many who applied to protest in those areas were detained while filing their applications.)
