Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote a Fox News op-ed Monday morning titled “Don’t boycott China Olympics — US tried this before and here’s who was hurt the most,” arguing Americans would only hurt themselves by boycotting the Beijing Olympics.
Cruz said Americans who compete in the Olympics “have spent most of their lives in training,” and the country should not take away their chances next year in Beijing at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Texas Republican urged the U.S. to find different ways to fight China and hoped the International Olympic Committee “comes to its senses” and moves the Olympics somewhere else.
Cruz argued:
To be clear, I and many others hope that the International Olympic Committee comes to its senses and moves the 2022 Olympic Winter Games out of Beijing. As someone who was sanctioned twice by the government of China, I am flabbergasted that the IOC would ever give this human rights-abusing, free speech-repressing, trade-and-currency manipulating set of totalitarians who make up the Chinese Communist Party the honor of hosting the Olympic Games in the first place. Here’s hoping that reason prevails and the Games are sent to any place but China.
Cruz called the Carter boycott in 1980 against the Soviet Union “terrible policy,” saying “it hurt the athletes and no one else.”
The Texas senator called out President Joe Biden for copying Carter’s mistakes with the Soviet Union within two months of taking office by suggesting another boycott on China in the future.
“The worst thing we can do to stand up to China is to keep our athletes home. As anyone who has ever faced down a bully knows, when you decide to hide and not to fight, the bully wins,” Cruz said. This is why “it is our responsibility and duty to make sure that our athletes go to Beijing, compete confidently and safely, and return home triumphantly.”
Cruz concluded with, “Our athletes must go to Beijing and win.”
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