Framing the Games: China’s Human Rights Problem

The Winter Olympics have begun. China wants the Beijing Games to showcase the country’s meteoric rise, but American legislators and an international coalition of activists see the Games as an opportunity to spotlight China’s human rights record.   First, we hear from U.S. track and field star Raven “Hulk” Saunders about the Olympic podium protest ban. Then, WorldAffairs host Philip Yun talks with a former State Department colleague, Bennett Freeman, about the campaign to pressure China to change. Finally, journalist Mary Kay Magistad speaks with two leaders from China’s persecuted Uyghur minority about surveillance, repression, and state violence in the shadow of the Winter Olympics.    Guests:   Raven Saunders, 2021 silver medalist for U.S. Olympic Track and Field team Bennett Freeman, former deputy assistant secretary of state, democracy, human rights and labor  Zumretay Arkin, program manager at World Uyghur Congress Nury Turkel, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute   Hosts:  Philip Yun, co-host, WorldAffairs Mary Kay Magistad, associate director at Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society   If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.