Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R) and Virginia Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D) have joined a bipartisan effort to condemn the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC has received mounting criticism over the Winter Olympics moving forward with being held in Beijing, China.
Reps. Waltz and Wexton have now penned an op-ed, further criticizing the IOC while also calling for it to be reformed because “the rot has run deep and it’s time for drastic changes.”
With the Olympics around the corner, lawmakers have only grown more vocal with their opposition to Beijing hosting the event.
Citing numerous human rights violations conducted by the Communist Chinese Party, lawmakers like Reps. Waltz and Wexton have called for the IOC to reconsider but to no avail.
In a Newsweek op-ed released this week, Waltz and Wexton call for it “to be reformed from top to bottom.”
“At its best, the Olympics can provide a platform for mutual cultural understanding, respect for our differences, a bridge for further dialogue, or as the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) charter states, ‘to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,’” the lawmakers write.
However, citing transgressions in recent years, “the IOC has allowed itself to become a political tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to, as President Xi Jinping put it, ‘tell China’s story well,’” adding that “the IOC’s board members and its corporate sponsors are complicit in the CCP’s crimes against humanity, helping them cover up the Uyghur genocide and other abuses while putting profits over human rights.”
In response, the lawmakers cited legislation they will be introducing, including “pushing the Beijing Winter Olympics Sponsor Accountability Act,” which “ensure that corporate sponsors that choose their profits over upholding human rights are held accountable.”
Waltz and Wexton specified that “their federal contracts should be on the table.”
