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FDP politician Nicola Beer
Photo: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / REUTERS
It should be a signal from the West in the direction of Beijing: Diplomats from the USA and Australia will boycott this year's Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
Now the European politician Nicola Beer (FDP) has spoken out in favor of an even clearer sign from the EU.
The European Union should "not only stay in the slipstream of the USA, but stand on its back legs for the observance of human rights and speak out in favor of a complete boycott of the Winter Games," said the Vice President of the EU Parliament in the newspapers of the "Funke Mediengruppe". . The diplomatic boycott demanded by the USA is coming late, said the FDP politician, and is "the least" that can be expected from the West. The Winter Olympics in China in February 2022 are "a wrong stage in the wrong place."
Clear signals from the West in the direction of Beijing are long overdue, said Beer, referring to the "brutal suppression of the Uyghurs, the Chinese aggression against Hong Kong and Taiwan."
It could not be in the interests of either the US or the EU to "quietly watch Beijing at the winter games as a gigantic propaganda staging, while China's apparatus openly behind the scenes seriously violates human rights," stressed Beer.
"Blatant disregard for human dignity"
The FDP youth organization Junge Liberale (Julis) also called on the future federal government to join the diplomatic boycott.
The Chinese Communist Party is often responsible for serious violations of human rights, said Federal Chairwoman Franziska Brandmann of the dpa news agency.
She referred in particular to the situation in the autonomous region of Xinjiang: "Members of the Uighur ethnic group are prevented from practicing their religion there, millions of times are locked up in detention camps under unworthy conditions and in some cases even forcibly sterilized," said Brandmann. "We Young Liberals sharply condemn this blatant disregard for human dignity."
Even beyond Xinjiang, the human rights situation in China "can only be described as miserable," said Brandmann. “Freedom of expression and freedom of the press in particular are being trampled underfoot by the Chinese government. Under these circumstances, there is no question for us that the federal government must set an example, «Brandmann said to the address of the SPD, Greens and FDP. "Although she should cheer for the top German athletes, she is not allowed to reward the host country China with an official visit."
The US announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games on Monday.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington that President Joe Biden's administration would not send diplomatic or official representatives to the Winter Olympics in China.
The background to this is the ongoing »genocide« in the Xinjiang autonomous region and other human rights violations.
mrc / dpa
