Beijing 2022 organizers dismiss human rights concerns

Politics, which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) have been trying to keep out of the Winter Games, took center stage on Thursday.

Yan Jiarong, spokesperson for the BOCOG, told reporters at an IOC press conference that: "The so-called forced labor in Xinjiang is lies made up by deliberate groups."

Yan was speaking after a reporter had directed a question to IOC spokesperson Mark Adams about material from Xinjiang region being used in clothing made by Chinese uniform supplier Anta.

"I don't think it is relevant to the IOC. We are very, very concerned with protecting human rights within our sphere," Adams said. "We leave it to other organizations to look at aspects outside of what is happening here."

Human rights groups have accused some textile companies who source materials from Xinjiang of ignoring abuses of the Uyghur population in the region. China denies all accusations of abuse and has repeatedly denied claims that it runs a network of forced labor camps in Xinjiang.

Amid a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics by the United States, Britain and other Western nations over China's human rights records, the IOC has tried to keep politics out of the Beijing Games.

BOCOG spokesperson Yan also reiterated China's stance towards democratically governed Taiwan, which is officially known as Chinese Taipei at the Olympic Games 

"There is only one China," she said of the territory that Beijing claims as its own "sacred" territory. 

pfd/KMc (AP, dpa, Reuters)