2021 Issue 49

SUBSCRIBE

Officials from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Lithuania, and Canada announced this week that they would stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games. The decision caps months of advocacy by human rights groups who have called attention to the litany of human rights abuses Beijing continues to perpetrate within its borders and support globally by exporting autocratic technologies. Reporters Without Borders released a new report naming the Chinese government as the largest global “captor” of journalists. Beijing used coronavirus lockdowns and its continued degradation of civil society in Hong Kong to tighten its grasp over domestic media while isolating itself from international scrutiny. Beijing is presently responsible for the detainment of an estimated 127 journalists.