Rep. Waltz to Newsmax: IOC in 'Genocide Denial' by Allowing Beijing Games

The International Olympic Committee is "clearly in genocide denial" by allowing the Olympic games in Beijing to go on considering the behavior of the Chinese government toward the Uyghur Muslims and continued denials of any role by the nation over the COVID-19 pandemic, Rep. Michael Waltz said on Newsmax on Friday.

"I was the first in Congress to call for a full boycott of the 'genocide games,' " the Florida Republican said in a panel discussion on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "To be clear, we've been asking the IOC for years now to move the games and to not put our athletes in this position of having to turn a blind eye to their values and principles, or being able to compete, but the IOC has persisted."

The games open in just two weeks, and athletes already are being warned not to speak out on human rights issues during the competition, according to reports, and China has denied any mistreatment of the minority ethnic group.

Waltz on Friday accused the IOC of "turning a blind eye and contravention of its own bylaws in terms of mass incarceration, forced rape, forced torture, forced sterilization, the stamping out of freedom in Hong Kong, unleashing COVID to the world, and aggression toward Taiwan. If that's not enough for the IOC to take a stand, I don't know what is."

The congressman added that he and Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., have joined forces on legislation to revoke the hundreds of millions of dollars the United States spends to subsidize the IOC.

"The NBC contract alone is $7.5 billion, and the IOC is sending $800 million into Beijing for infrastructure," said Waltz. "The last thing the United States should be doing is subsidizing that."

China expert Gordon Chang, also part of the Friday panel, called the decision to allow the Olympics in Beijing "worse than 1936," when Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics.

"What China is doing is comparable to what the Third Reich did prior to the mass exterminations that began in 1941," said Chang. "We also know that there's a lot of coronavirus in Beijing right now.

"They admit to one omicron case, but obviously, there is more, and so we shouldn't be putting the athletes into harm's way. NBC is not sending its announcers to Beijing because they're worried about being locked down. If you can't have your announcers on-site, how can you have your Olympians there?"

China is also posing threats to the United States and the world, said Waltz, with its moves to establish its presence in South and Central America and the Caribbean "right off the shore of the United States.

"I don't think that many Americans appreciate that the Chinese have essentially bought up the ports on both sides of the Panama Canal," said Waltz. "They have taken a mountain range in Argentina as collateral for its debt and put a space tracking station on it … we as a country need to wake up."

But the Biden administration "has no strategy" for China's threats, said Waltz.

The congressman said he does sympathize with the Olympic athletes, but he also pointed out that the IOC took a stand against South Africa over apartheid, so it's "hypocritical" for the organization to claim a similar stance against China would mean playing politics.

"I don't think we should be watching these Olympics," said Waltz. "I don't think we should be supporting it, and when Americans out there pick up something at a store, and it says made in China, put it down. Made in America is a national security issue and a jobs issue."

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