By Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch (HRW). Here is an excerpt:

In the video, a skier is preparing for her big race at the Winter Olympics in China. She puts on her boots, her gloves, her helmet, and her googles. Then she covers her mouth in tape.

Human Rights Watch has launched a video series with Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao to put the Winter Olympics, which begin February 4, in context. One focuses on the Chinese government’s demand that global athletes shut up about human rights abuses in China and similar topics. 

Beijing’s Olympics are not business as usual. They take place against a backdrop of Chinese government crimes against humanity targeting ethnic Uyghurs, repression in Hong Kong and Tibet, and risks to athletes unprecedented in the modern Olympic era. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, China remains the worst jailer of journalists in the world for the third straight year. 

Read the full story here.