Olympics 2022 -- China has warned athletes not to protest in Beijing. What happens if they do?

Olympic officials and the Chinese government have warned athletes at the Winter Olympics against staging any protests at competition venues or on the medal stand, saying they could violate Olympic rules as well as Chinese law. But if history is a guide, that message is likely to go unheeded.

The International Olympic Committee has long prohibited «demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda» at Olympic sites, although the rule was tweaked before last year's Tokyo Summer Games to allow for protests made «without disruption and with respect for competitors.»

But in the days leading up to the ongoing Winter Games in Beijing, China added an ominous new wrinkle. Yang Shu, deputy director general of Beijing 2022's International Relations Department, said any protesters that violate «the Olympic spirit» or Chinese law could be subject to unspecified punishment by the host country.

The warning — which human rights groups have advised Olympians to take seriously — comes during an era of rising demands for social justice that are echoed by activist athletes across the globe. China faces particular scrutiny for its human rights practices, including the detention of more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province as part of what the U.S. government and others have labeled a genocide.

Some U.S. officials worry that American athletes could face harsh sanctions if any protest upsets Chinese sensibilities. «Being an American citizen is in itself not protection from adverse treatment by the Chinese government,» read a Jan. 28 letter to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee from a congressional commission that monitors human rights abuses in China. «As the Commission has