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Washington, DC -- On Friday, U.S. Representatives Jennifer Wexton (VA-10-D), Mike Waltz (FL-6-R), and Tom Malinowski (NJ-7-D) introduced the bipartisan Beijing Winter Olympics Sponsor Accountability Act that would prohibit the United States government from contracting with any U.S. company sponsoring the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The Chinese government is engaged in egregious human rights abuses, including the mass internment and forced labor of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, and this legislation seeks to exert pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to relocate the 2022 Winter Games.

Joining Waltz, Malinowski, and Wexton as original cosponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympics Sponsor Accountability Act are Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), and Liz Cheney (R-WY). 

"We cannot allow the IOC to turn a blind eye to the Chinese government's brutal human rights abuses and genocide of Uyghur Muslims," said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. "Since the IOC has so far failed to confront the CCP, we must take action to put pressure on them from every angle, and that means hitting them where it hurts most -- their corporate sponsorships. I'm proud to join this bipartisan coalition to introduce this urgent legislation."

“By financially supporting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, both American and other global corporations are complicit in whitewashing the ongoing genocide against Chinese ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang region, repression against their own people, the attempted coverup of the COVID-19 pandemic, media censorship, the repression of democratic rights in Hong Kong and Tibet, and threats against the free democracy in Taiwan,” said Rep. Mike Waltz. “We need to leverage the resources of the U.S. government to encourage these businesses to do the right thing and press the IOC to relocate the games from China. It is egregiously appalling for these companies to be promoting their ‘wokeness’ while at the same time ignoring genocide and human rights atrocities being committed by the Chinese Communist Party, simply to appease the oppressive regime and maintain market access. We intend to help them find their spines.”

“We should not be holding the Olympics in a country where the government is currently engaged in genocide and crimes against humanity,” said Rep. Malinowski. “If the International Olympic Committee can discuss postponing the Tokyo Games over public health concerns, it can certainly move the China games over the mass incarceration of people in concentration camps. And if it does not, we must at least do more to ensure that American companies sponsoring the Games like Coca-Cola, Airbnb, and Visa aren’t complicit.”

“HRW supports any and all efforts to push the International Olympic Committee and companies sponsoring the 2022 Games to carry out real human rights due diligence,” said Dr. Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch China director. “ At a time when the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang—a reality the IOC is unwilling to acknowledge—governments need to be sure companies from their countries aren’t bankrolling repression.”

Under this legislation, the head of an executive agency may not enter into contract for the procurement of goods or services with any person that has business operations with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympics Winter Games or the IOC. Sponsors include: Coca Cola, Airbnb, Intel, Visa, Omega, General Electric, Dow Chemical Company, and Procter & Gamble.

U.S. government officials from both political parties have repeatedly called on the IOC and U.S. Olympic Committee to move the location of the games, citing the numerous human rights atrocities being committed against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Despite international calls to move the site and successful efforts to delay the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the IOC refuses to move the location of the winter games.

Earlier this month, Wexton announced her support for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games over the host country’s egregious human rights abuses.

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