China You use the next one Winter Olympic Games to “erase” its “terrible” human rights record, warns NGO director Human Rights Institute (HRW), urges countries to join diplomatic boycott.

“That chinese government he is clearly trying to use the Beijing Olympics to cover up his horrific crackdown,” Kenneth Roth said in an interview.

The United States, Britain, Australia and Canada announced that they would not be sending their political representatives to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing on February 4, citing China’s Human Rights Violations, among others against the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region (northwest).

The HRW director insisted that other countries should also refrain from sending top officials to the Olympics, to help “highlight the mass atrocities” in the region, as well as “destroy basic freedoms in Hong Kong” by some China.

He also recalled that HRW did not ask athletes to boycott the Olympics, but insisted that the government could not limit itself to “pretending that everything was normal.”

“At the very least, the international community should join Olympic diplomatic boycott“, he added.

Asked about this statement, China’s Foreign Ministry accused the NGO of being “as always full of prejudice” and of “faking lies” to “sow discord.”

“Unpleasant words and actions (HRW) that seek to harm the goals of the Olympics will not achieve their goals,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

Roth insisted that Olympic sponsors had to take a stand. “Instead of promoting” efforts to cover up these abuses, companies should “focus on what is happening in Xinjiang,” he said.

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Activists denounce that at least one million Uyghurs and other minorities, mostly Muslims, have been imprisoned in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang. Beijing alleges that they are training centers aimed at curbing Islamic extremism.

“All companies should do what they can to avoid supporting or legitimizing the Chinese government’s suppression,” said Roth, calling the recent decision by automaker Tesla to open dealerships in the region demonstrates a “lack of sensitivity.”

The HRW director said, however, that many countries seemed more determined to criticize China at the United Nations in New York and Geneva. But he lamented that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who plans to attend the opening of the Games, “remains silent and refuses to speak critically about the Chinese government.”

“This is a huge global failure,” he said.