John Ratcliffe: China Olympics 2022 – COVID cover up by country's leaders means they should forfeit games

In a matter of just six months, another Olympic Games is scheduled to take place in Beijing.

The 2022 Winter Games should go on. We should not punish hard-working athletes who have dedicated their lives to preparing for this moment. But the world -- and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) -- should not allow Beijing to enjoy the benefits of hosting a massive global event while rejecting transparency and refusing to allow inquiries into, much less answering for, the deaths of millions of people around the world. Just last week, China rejected the World Health Organization's (WHO) plan to investigate the theory that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. This was remarkable not only because of China’s continued belligerence, but also because the WHO was once complicit, caving to the CCP’s initial pressure to dismiss the lab leak theory and downplay the CCP’s coverup. But now the facts are too hard for even the WHO -- and hopefully the IOC -- to ignore.