Today, the representatives of the Senate compared the holding of the Olympic Games in China to the Olympics in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.
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Politicians have met with Tibetan film director Döndub Wangchen. He supported the director in his efforts to persuade democratic countries to boycott the games.
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Senate Vice President Jiří Oberfalzer (ODS) said that the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to hold the Olympics in China was “very immature and to some extent irresponsible.”
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According to him, holding games in China is nonsense. “As with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin or the USSR Olympics, it is mostly about promoting the regime. First Nazi, second Communist. In particular, it is a matter of obscuring and diverting attention from the totalitarian behavior of these host countries towards their own populations and minorities, “said the Vice-President of the Senate. He added that “the Olympics do not belong to China, it may be organized by North Korea next time.”
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Senator Přemysl Rabas (SEN 21) added that Olympic sport should symbolize understanding and friendship between nations. “In China, however, sports stadiums are also used to carry out executions of opponents of the regime,” he said.
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The Chinese embassy has not yet responded to the senators’ words.
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Döndub Wangchen is a Tibetan director who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2009 for his film Leave Fear Behind, which premiered at the opening of the Beijing Summer Olympics. In 2017, he managed to escape from China and was granted asylum in the USA. He is the holder of the Václav Havel Award for creative dissent. Wangchen is now touring European countries and persuading them to boycott the games, which begin on February 4.
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“The Chinese president is acting like the second Mao Zedong, we are facing the danger of cultural genocide. There is an effort to transform Tibet into a country dominated by Chinese culture, “the director said at a press conference after his talks with the senators. He also expressed support for athletes who want to express their views on the political situation in China and the human rights violations by the regime.
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On Tuesday, the director will meet with the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies Marek Ženíšek (both TOP 09).
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Representatives of the new government are not going to China at the Olympics. However, the Chinese media used the greeting of President Miloš Zeman to the Olympians. The president said in a short video that he was against abusing the Olympic idea for political purposes.
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“We experienced it a long time ago in both Moscow and Los Angeles. There is now a more subtle form of this abuse, where a boycott is announced only by politicians and not by athletes. To be honest, if some political buffoon players are not at the Olympic Games, nothing terrible will happen, “said Zeman. His words were immediately used by the Chinese press.
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Like the media appearances of the Czech Ambassador to China Vladimír Tomšík, who stated that “everyone” supports the Olympics in China.
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