With the Beijing Winter Olympics now underway, Americans must not allow the glowing coverage to divert their attention from China's deplorable human rights record, repression of free speech, military adventurism in the South China Sea, and its implicit offer to help Russia weather Western sanctions over Ukraine. Athletes are under strict rules to keep their mouths shut or risk expulsion or arrest. China deserves to be called out at every opportunity for defying the ideals that the Olympics stand for.

NBC paid more than $7 billion for the rights to broadcast the games, and its executives must be painfully aware of China's ability to pull the plug for any infraction or perceived insult by its announcers. As television viewers tune in throughout the next two weeks, they should take note not just of the extraordinary athletic talent on display but also what's not being said.

President Xi Jinping's government has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to crack down whenever it wants. It expelled U.S. journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post in 2020. It recently arranged the disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai for publicly accusing a top official of having sexually assaulted her.

The list of oppressive and abusive actions became so voluminous the United States and other Western countries could no longer justify a courteous silence ahead of the games. Instead, they are observing a diplomatic boycott.

In an interview with NPR, China's ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, sidestepped any serious discussion or acknowledgment of everything the rest of the world sees his government doing. Qin denounced as "fabrications, lies and disinformation" the well-confirmed murders and arrests of China's Uyghur minority. Uyghurs who challenge China's rule, he said, are "terrorists." Those who espouse their ethnic identity are sent to "vocational camps" to learn how to assimilate to the Chinese way.

Chinese journalists who reported facts about the spread of the coronavirus in the early days of the pandemic were arrested or threatened by government agents. Now, the only word coming from China is that the coronavirus has been virtually wiped out, and the official daily death toll for a country of more than 1.4 billion is zero. The boundless miracles of communism never cease to amaze!

Against that backdrop, American viewers should expect minimal if any real coverage from Beijing of any substantive issues beyond, perhaps, athletes' favorite foods and their love of the dramatic vistas from their Olympic Village rooms.

Politics and Olympic athletics have been inextricably intertwined ever since Black athlete Jesse Owens stood on the gold medal dais in 1936, disproving the myth of Aryan superiority while surrounded by his German hosts offering Heil Hitler salutes. The International Olympic Committee has enabled and encouraged China's egregious behavior by granting host status, once again, to a country whose actions belie everything the Olympics stand for.

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