IV 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 16 

Urging that the International Olympic Committee rebid the 2022 Olympic 

Winter Games, and expressing the sense of Congress that the United 

States Olympic & Paralympic Committee should not participate if the 

Games are held in the People’s Republic of China and that the United 

States Government should lead an international boycott if the Games 

are held in the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 11, 2021 

Mr. RESCHENTHALER submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the 

Committee on Oversight and Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Urging that the International Olympic Committee rebid the 

2022 Olympic Winter Games, and expressing the sense 

of Congress that the United States Olympic & 

Paralympic Committee should not participate if the 

Games are held in the People’s Republic of China and 

that the United States Government should lead an international boycott if the Games are held in the People’s 

Republic of China, and for other purposes. 

Whereas, in 2015, the International Olympic Committee announced Beijing, the capital city of the People’s Republic 


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•HCON 16 IH 

of China, as the host city of the 2022 Olympic Winter 

Games; 

Whereas the Olympic charter states the goal of Olympism is 

to promote ‘‘a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity’’; 

Whereas, according to the September 2020 House of Representatives China Task Force Report, the Government 

of China is the leading human rights abuser in the world, 

depriving 1,400,000,000 human beings of their fundamental rights; 

Whereas, since 2017, the Government of China has detained 

and persecuted up to 1,800,000 Turkic Muslims, including ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz, in ‘‘political 

re-education’’ centers, and many detainees who have not 

‘‘graduated’’ from the facilities have been convicted of 

formal crimes and sentenced to prison terms; 

Whereas detained and imprisoned Muslim minorities in the 

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are held arbitrarily 

and without due process, coerced to disavow religious beliefs and cultural practices, forced to work in factories, 

deprived of food and other essential needs, and subjected 

to physical abuse, including torture and alleged organ 

harvesting; 

Whereas the Government of China is implementing a policy 

of employing large numbers of Uyghurs, including former 

detainees, in labor-intensive factories in Xinjiang and 

elsewhere in China under forced labor conditions; 

Whereas the Government of China has implemented policies 

against minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to lower birth rates, including forced abortions, sterilizations, and contraception; 


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Whereas according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an estimated 8,500 mosques have been demolished 

in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and nearly 

30 percent of Islamic shrines, cemeteries, and other sites 

of religious importance in the region have been damaged 

or destroyed, mostly since 2017; 

Whereas Article 2 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on 

the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which both the United States and China have ratified, defines genocide as ‘‘any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or 

mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring 

about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the 

group; [or] (e) forcibly transferring children of the group 

to another group.’’; 

Whereas, on January 19, 2021, the Department of State determined that the Government of China, under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party, ‘‘has 

committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim 

Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups 

in Xinjiang’’, and on the same day, Secretary of State 

Antony Blinken agreed, stating, ‘‘forcing men, women 

and children into concentration camps, trying to in effect 

re-educate them to be adherents to the Chinese Communist Party—all of that speaks to an effort to commit 

genocide’’; 

Whereas, in June 2020, the legislature of China passed a national security law for Hong Kong restricting basic politVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:49 Feb 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC16.IH HC16

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•HCON 16 IH 

ical rights and authorizing severe punishments for anyone 

inside or outside Hong Kong found guilty of broad vaguely defined crimes, effectively ending the longstanding 

‘‘one country, two systems’’ policy; 

Whereas, in September 2020, the House Foreign Affairs 

Committee Minority Staff Report on the origins of the 

COVID–19 global pandemic found that— 

(1) authorities in China harassed, detained, and disappeared individuals who told the truth about the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the COVID–19 pandemic; 

(2) during the early outbreak of the COVID–19 pandemic, the Government of China failed to meet an international legal requirement to inform the World Health 

Organization of the COVID–19 outbreak in Wuhan, 

Hubei Province, China; 

(3) during the early stages of the COVID–19 pandemic, the Government of China knew of the deadly 

human-to-human transmission capabilities of the virus 

and took steps to hide it from the public and global community; and 

(4) in February 2020, the Government of China nationalized their medical supply chain to stockpile personal 

protective equipment and stop foreign exports to other 

countries battling the COVID–19 pandemic; 

Whereas, in October 2020, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stated, regarding a potential boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics due to human rights 

violations against the Uyghurs, that ‘‘my instinct is to 

separate sport from diplomacy and politics, but there 

comes a point where that may not be possible’’; 


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Whereas, in September 2020, an international coalition of 

human rights organizations wrote to the International 

Olympic Committee requesting the committee ‘‘reverse its 

mistake in awarding Beijing the honor of hosting the 

Winter Olympic Games in 2022’’; 

Whereas, in November 2020, the Australian Parliament debated a motion calling on the ‘‘Australian Government to 

work with the Australian Olympic Committee to ensure 

Australia boycotts the 2022 Winter Olympics games in 

Beijing’’; 

Whereas, in January 2020, the editorial board of The Washington Post opposed the Government of China hosting 

the 2022 Winter Olympics and stated, ‘‘the world must 

ask whether China, slowly strangling an entire people, 

has the moral standing to host the 2022 Winter Olympic 

Games. We think not.’’; 

Whereas, in 1980, in H. Con. Res. 249, the House of Representatives voted 386 to 12, and the Senate voted 88 to 

4, to urge the United States Olympic Committee to propose the transfer or cancellation of the 1980 Summer 

Olympics in Moscow; to urge the International Olympic 

Committee to adopt such a proposal; and, if the International Olympic Committee rejected the proposal, to 

urge the United States Olympic Committee and those of 

other countries not to participate in the Games and to 

conduct alternative games of their own, due to concerns 

over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan; and 

Whereas since the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, 

the human rights record and global authoritarian influence of China have severely worsened and do not meet 

the values of Olympism: Now, therefore, be it 


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1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That Congress— 

3 (1) supports the achievements of the athletes, 

4 coaches, and personnel of the United States Olympic 

5 & Paralympic Committee; 

6 (2) affirms the values and goals of Olympism; 

7 (3) urges the International Olympic Committee 

8 to rebid the 2022 Winter Olympics to a country that 

9 recognizes and respects human rights; 

10 (4) calls on the United States Olympic & 

11 Paralympic Committee to support human rights and 

12 boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics if held in the 

13 People’s Republic of China; and 

14 (5) calls on the Administration to support inter15 national efforts toward a boycott of the 2022 Olym16 pic Winter Games if they are held in China. 

Æ 


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