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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 07:04 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

"The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" -- a classic theme of competitive sports -- is being continuously broadcast on NBC as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics competition unfolds. But the corporate-sponsored programming is not winning the massive audiences that once celebrated the global games. In fact, viewership is shockingly low. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics saw a historic slump in viewership, with just 16 million total viewers tuning in, down 43 percent from the previous games.

Why the plummeting ratings? Because a different kind of agony is upstaging these competitions, which have been dubbed "The Genocide Games." Many Americans are appalled by the Chinese government's horrifying abuse of more than a million Uyghur Muslims, innocent victims who are being tortured, raped, sterilized, and murdered in Xinjiang, China's massive complex of genocidal concentration camps.

Two outspoken U.S. Congressmen -- careful observers of the ongoing atrocities in China -- described their reasons for protesting the Chinese government's cynical use of the Olympic games as a distraction from its atrocities on "Washington Watch."

Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) is ranking member of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. "We have this dictator, Xi Jinping, who seems to think he's the reincarnation of Mao Tse Tung," he said. "He is brutal. He shows absolutely no mercy. He has designs on other countries throughout the world. He's building up a military that is soon to be second to none, including nuclear capability. And China's human rights abuses, and the crushing of all faiths, is anti-God, anti-person, and anti-human being."

"I've chaired 75 congressional hearings on human rights abuses in China," Smith noted. "One of them last March was on the Olympics. This administration moved to have the venue changed. But instead, we're seeing the 1936 Olympics all over again. Xi Jinping is committing genocide against the Uyghurs -- completely trying to wipe them off the face of the Earth through forced abortion of their children, and the concentration camps where untold other tortures are being visited upon them. It is unprecedented in modern times, and it harkens back to other genocides, especially that done by the Nazis."

One primary reason for the shocking compromise of American values is China's "Most Favored Nation" status, which has generated a corporate rush into trade opportunities. The traditional thinking went that if corporate America did business with China, they would eventually adopt American principles. Instead, the reverse is happening.

Congressman Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, a ranking member on the Subcommittee on Readiness, and a decorated special forces officer, has also been closely focused on the Genocide Games and on China's courtship of American corporations. He produced an ad highlighting China's human rights abuses, but NBC refused to broadcast it during their coverage.

Waltz explained on "Washington Watch" that all the corporations sponsoring the Olympics preach good governance. "Their ESG standards contribute tens of millions to social justice causes here in the United States. But when it comes to their profits abroad, they totally turn a blind eye to the covert cover up of a million Muslims in concentration camps, or China's persecution of Christians, or their forced organ harvesting. The list of abuses under this dictatorship goes on and on, yet the corporations totally turn a blind eye."

"At the same time, I don't trust these CEOs as far as I can throw them," Waltz made clear. "You see, they selectively get involved in causes. Airbnb is also supporting the boycott and divestiture movement against Israel. Right? Yet they have houses in Shenzhen, where slavery is going on. Nike gets its cotton from modern day slave-run cotton fields that are facing the barrel of the Chinese Communist Party's gun. Coca-Cola gets its sugar from China. I mean, it's just total hypocrisy. And we're going to do everything we can to call them out on it. But I think the American people have to start voting with their wallets. That's the only way you're going to get these corporate CEOs' attention."

Waltz added, "American companies are drunk on Chinese dollars. They're entangled with communist dictators who are committing atrocities and propping up these Olympic CCP-staged Genocide Games. So, what can we do? You know, we talk about defunding all kinds of things. Let's defund our greatest adversary, China."

We as American consumers play a huge part in this. Let's stop buying products made in China.

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Lela Gilbert is Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom and Coalitions Coordinator at Family Research Council, where she brings a lengthy record of advocating for persecuted believers and addressing current-day faith and freedom issues. Lela resided in Israel for ten years, from 2006 to 2017; she writes and speaks about the intensifying persecution of Christians, Antisemitism, and abuses of religious minorities across the world.

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