Do not mess with them.
Less than two weeks before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China has warned that foreign athletes could be "subject to punishment" if they speak out on human rights issues and especially against Chinese laws and regulations.
"Any conduct or speech that is contrary to the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, is also subject to a certain penalty," Yang Xu, deputy director of the Department of International Relations in Beijing 2022, said during an existing briefing.
According to the Reuters news agency, Young stated at the press conference hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Washington that the athletes' entry permits could be revoked if they did not follow the Olympic guidelines.
Young argued that "politicization of sports" was prohibited under the Olympic Convention.
Rule 50 of the Olympic Convention states that "no form of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted at any Olympic site".
During the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year, the rule was eased to allow gestures on the court as long as they were neither disruptive nor disrespectful.
The medals for the Winter Olympics
The International Olympic Committee has come under heavy criticism for placing the Winter Games in China.
Several countries, including the United States, have accused China of carrying out genocide against Uighurs (with a Central Asian Turk - AA) and other ethnic minorities in western Xinjiang province.
Apparently 1 to 3 million people were placed in concentration camps by the Chinese government under the guise of fighting extremism and crime.
Human rights supporters and survivors argued that such camps were meant to turn people into supporters of the Chinese Communist Party.
China has also been accused of violating rights against other religious minorities such as Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners.
Last year, the Trump administration defined China's persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang - including mass incarceration, forced labor and forced sterilization - as "genocide" and "crimes against humanity."
The purpose of the genocide was kept under the Biden administration.
As you may recall, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have declared diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Olympics.
Australian Sports Minister Richard Colbeck called the Chinese official's comments "very worrying".
"The International Olympic Committee has made it clear that all athletes have the right to political views and the freedom to express them, including through social media and media interviews," Colbeck told Sydney Morning.
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