The Beijing Olympics show companies are hypocrites on human rights. Hold China accountable.

Hypocrisy isn’t an Olympic sport, but if it was, the winner would be clear: The corporate sponsors.

This fact was clear well before the Tokyo Summer Olympics ended this month. A few days before, in a formal hearing, members of Congress grilled some of the biggest corporate backers about why they support holding the next Winter Olympics in Beijing – the capital of the world’s worst human rights abuser, Communist China. Without fail, the companies refused to criticize China’s horrific actions, much less throw their weight behind moving or canceling the 2022 competition.

The lack of moral courage is extraordinary. At least 13 of the 15 biggest sponsors of Tokyo 2020 are on track to sponsor Beijing 2022, from Coca-Cola to Airbnb to Visa. Many of the companies are American, and they generally claim to support human rights. Yet, when confronted with the reality of China’s oppression of 1.4 billion people and genocide against millions of mostly Muslim Uyghurs, they stay silent.

Uyghur American: I was born in a Chinese reeducation camp. I will always fight China's lies.

The hypocrisy is even clearer in light of many companies’ recent actions.

Taking a public stand?

We already know that Olympic sponsors have no problem pulling back their support. Just days before Tokyo 2020 began, Toyota canceled advertisements and its president backed out of the opening ceremony. The company took these steps because of public opposition to holding the games during the pandemic. Yet Toyota, which is also a sponsor of the Beijing Winter Olympics, apparently has no problem holding games amid a religious and ethnic genocide.

We also know that Olympic sponsors have no problem taking public stands about human rights.

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola famously criticized Georgia’s new voting law, saying it was “disappointed” by the state’s actions and lecturing that “we all have a duty” to do what’s right. (Never mind that Georgia’s voting system is more open and accessible than states like New York.) Fast forward to the summer, and Coca-Cola refuses to mention, much less condemn, Communist China’s brutality as it prepares to sponsor Beijing 2022. In the Senate hearing, the company’s vice president for human rights couldn’t utter a single word about Beijing’s mass oppression of the Uyghurs, even when pressed.

Other Olympic sponsors are failing this moral test, too. Take Airbnb, which stated last month that its "core values and policies reflect our recognition of and respect for human rights." Does Airbnb's policy take into account China's systematic campaign to eliminate an entire ethnic group?

Then there's Procter & Gamble. Last year the company announced it would extend its Olympic sponsorship contract to advance racial equality, while promising to act as a “force for good.” How does ignoring the Chinese Communist Party’s genocidal campaign against the Uyghurs advance equality? How does staying silent on one of the world’s worst human rights abuses accomplish anything good?

At the same time these companies are shrinking into the moral shadows, the proof of China’s oppression is only growing. Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong is getting worse every month. So is the threat of a Chinese invasion of free and democratic Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party is actively planning to export its tyranny to an unprecedented extent.

Move the Winter Olympics

Most disturbingly, a new report out this month shows that China’s murderous campaign against the Uyghurs is bigger than anyone knew. Beijing has built at least 347 de facto concentration camps capable of holding more than a million Uyghurs at any given moment. It’s already clear that China tortures the Uyghurs, brainwashes Uyghur children, rapes Uyghur women, and forces them to abort their babies. Now it’s clear that China can commit such crimes on a heart-wrenching scale.

Uyghur: I've fought China's slow-motion genocide of Uighur Muslims. Now, my family are victims.

The sheer breadth of China’s tyranny should have led the International Olympic Committee to move the Winter Olympics from Beijing. Such strong action would have upheld human rights without hurting our athletes. But the IOC has failed to do the right thing. That’s why both of us have called for the U.S. to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics. One of us was the first member of Congress to urge the Biden administration to take this step. But it’s also critical that companies, especially those based in the U.S., boycott Beijing 2022 as well.

By throwing their support behind Beijing 2022, the Olympic sponsors are handing a major propaganda victory to the Chinese Communist Party. They are giving a pass to its evil actions, encouraging further tyranny, and telling the world that human rights don’t matter. There is no world in which that’s a win. It will only be a loss – for the United States, China’s victims, and the principles these companies claim to believe in.

Nikki Haley was Republican governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2019. Mike Waltz, a Republican, represents Florida’s 6th district in the House of Representatives.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: China is committing genocide. We shouldn't support Beijing Olympics.