Last fall, the International Olympic Committee hosted a video call with activists who were demanding the removal of Beijing as host of the 2022 Winter Olympics. During the call, campaigners said the Beijing Games would legitimize the Chinese government’s escalating human rights abuses.
“You, ladies and gentlemen, have your own responsibilities,” replied Juan Antonio Samaranch, chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for the upcoming Winter Games, according to contemporaneous notes seen by BuzzFeed News. “We have ours.”
The activists pointed to the mass detention of Muslims in Xinjiang, the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, and the continued repression in Tibet.