'Boycott!' calls growing louder over China hosting Olympics

Reggie Littlejohn of Women's Rights Without Frontiers tells One News Now that China was awarded the coveted Olympics games in 2015 with the hope the country would improve its human rights record in order to appear more humane to its own people to the rest of the world.

“And their human rights record,” she points out, “has only deteriorated since.”

China’s human rights abuses are well known, from imprisoning Christian pastors to harvesting organs from prisoners to benefit wealthy Chinese, but the well-documented enslavement of the Uyghurs has generated more public anger and bad publicity in recent years.

Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador, called for a U.S. boycott of China last week.

“The United States should not glorify a country that is committing genocide against its own people and threatening the world,” she posted on Twitter.

Others calling for a boycott include a coalition of U.S. senators; Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State; and more than 180 human rights groups that routinely document China’s human rights abuses.

Any boycott by the U.S. would also mean the U.S. recognizes and acts on China’s human rights abuses after U.S. lawmakers and U.S.-based manufacturers ignore our wealthy trading partner's abuses on a daily basis. 

China last hosted the Olympic Games in 2008 when its GDP was $4.6 trillion. That number is $14.3 trillion today, CNN reported in a story about boycott calls.

China's leaders will likely ignore the outrage, a national security analyst told CNN. Even small concessions, such as loosening Internet censorhip when the events are taking place, are in doubt.