Human rights activists aim to thwart China's bid to host 2022 Winter Olympics

Human rights activists are stepping up efforts to derail Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, hoping their protests and petitions can thwart what appears to be almost certain victory.

Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics Games, hopes to beat Almaty, Kazakhstan, when a decision is made today in Kuala Lumpur.

But five groups opposing Beijing's bid have appealed to the International Olympic Committee, urging it not to award the Games to the Chinese capital.

"China is now facing a human rights crisis with a scale of violations that is unprecedented since 2008," United States-based rights activists Rose Tang and Gu Yi said in a letter last week to the IOC.

They said human rights had deteriorated in China since Beijing held the 2008 Games. The last two years under President Xi Jinping have been marked by a sweeping crackdown on dissidents, activists and human rights lawyers.

"If the IOC awards the games to Beijing, it sends a signal … that it's the right thing to encourage a dictatorship that violates human rights blatantly on a larger and larger scale," Tang said.

China has long argued that it is unfairly singled out for criticism of its rights record.