The founder of the alliance of MPs, Sir Iain Duncan Smith has urged the IOC to reconsider Beijing as the host of the Olympic Winter Games in 2022. MPs from New Zealand, the Netherlands and the UK have questioned whether the games can continue in China amid the growing human rights concerns and restrictions on freedom of the press.

Former Australian soccer captain Craig Foster said on Tuesday the IOC would be directly responsible if it allowed its “mega events to be used to whitewash broad scale abuse occurring under the shadow of the stadia”.

“It is near impossible to see how China can stage a mega-sporting event in accordance with these basic human rights since many are antithetical to governmental principles themselves,” said Foster, an adjunct professor at Torrens University.

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who led the International Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, said a boycott would harden nationalist views in China, escalate a “cold-war mentality” and thwart attempts to moderate the Chinese Communist Party’s actions in the region.

Sharma, Australia’s former ambassador to Israel, said China’s national prestige was “on the line” and concessions on human rights, civil liberties and media freedoms could be won in the lead up to the games.

“They don’t want their international prestige to be diminished. It would mean that they will have to end up agreeing to a whole bunch of things that in regular times they would not agree to.”

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said the Olympics would put China in the spotlight, “including scrutiny of their human rights situation” and urged the IOC to “ensure that the international media can report freely”.

On Tuesday, a prominent critic of China’s President     Ren Zhiqiang, was sentenced to 18 years in jail for embezzling more than $10 million and taking $255,000 in bribes. The sentence came months after he described Xi as “a clown” in a highly critical essay on his response to the coronavirus crisis.

Carl Minzner, a professor of Chinese law at Fordham University, said the jailing of the property tycoon with high-profile party links sent a message that dissent would not be tolerated.

“This is a very high ranking businessman. Many thought he was untouchable but he takes a stand against Xi and he gets 18 years in prison. He has been made an example of,” Minzner said from Taipei.

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