Women's Rights Without Frontiers has been at the forefront of a campaign to convince the International Olympic Committee to either cancel the Olympics or move the games elsewhere because of China's treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs, which the U.S. State Department refers to as genocide.
But since the committee has not budged, the coalition is shifting its focus.
If China's human rights violations are not enough to convince athletes, coaches, and trainers to take a stand, Reggie Littlejohn says other factors might persuade them.
"China is having a big outbreak of the coronavirus, including in areas that are close to Beijing," Littlejohn notes. "They have another virus that's causing hemorrhagic fever, which is a really serious condition, possibly fatal."
In addition, all athletes will be housed together in a sort of bubble zone, making Chinese surveillance easy. That includes "everything that they post on social media, every phone call, every picture they send, everything they buy, everything they do, everybody they talk to."
And considering China's use of advanced technology to secretly monitor Uyghurs and other religious minorities, including Christians, Littlejohn "would not be surprised at all" if the athletes' hotel rooms were bugged.
