Protest march held in Sydney against Beijing Winter Olympics

SYDNEY: A peaceful protest march was held near Sydney on Saturday, highlighting the ongoing human rights abuses in China.

The march was conducted from Newcastle to Sydney as part of a demonstration against the Beijing Winter Olympics which opened on Friday. The protestors raised several flags supporting the Free Tibet movement. The slogans on the banner read messages like “World, stand up with Tibet” and “Tibet will be free.”

This protest march comes as the Beijing Games was officially launched against a backdrop of Chinese government crimes against humanity targeting Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic communities.

Several governments have announced they would withhold sending high-level diplomatic representation to the Games in response to Beijing’s ongoing abuses. Democracies including Britain, Australia, and Canada are among those to join a US-led diplomatic boycott of the Games, citing the human rights record of China.

Earlier, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said these Games–by which Beijing hopes to “sportswash” its abysmal rights record–reflect Xi Jinping’s assault on human rights since coming to power: devastating independent civil society, erasing press freedom, expanding high-tech surveillance. (ANI)