Nancy Pelosi to U.S. Athletes Joining Beijing Winter Olympics: “Do Not Risk Incurring the Anger of the Chinese Government”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) talks to reporters about her favorite professional sports teams from Northern California at the conclusion of a news conference in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on February 03, 2022 in Washington, DC. Pelosi also discussed the Olympics in China and that country's record of human rights violations and the COMPETES Act, the House version of a Senate-passed China competition bill. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has one piece of advice to U.S. athletes participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Pelosi directed U.S. athletes not to speak against communist China's human rights abuses during the Winter Olympics. The house speaker told the athletes, "you are there to compete," according to The Daily Wire news report.

The Democrat House speaker told U.S. athletes not to risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government, describing it as "ruthless."

Pelosi said that she knows there is a temptation on their part to speak out while they are there, which she respects. However, she noted that she is also worried about what the Chine government might do to their reputations and families.

Rep. Gary Palmer questioned Pelosi's advice to U.S. athletes, asking why the house speaker and her fellow Democratic lawmakers are touting a bill that ignores China's ongoing human rights abuses.

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett also lashed out at Pelosi's advice on Twitter.

Other Twitter users were not also keen on Pelosi's statement, with @GodFamilyFreedm saying that the house speaker is afraid that it is going to "mess up her investment opportunities."

Pelosi earlier said that if one does not speak out against human rights violations in China due to commercial interest, "we lose all moral authority" to speak out against other human rights violations, according to The Hill report.

Rep. Jim McGovern slammed the International Olympic Committee, saying that if given a choice, no athlete would want to compete in a country "committing genocide and crimes against humanity."

McGovern added that athletes are forced to do because of "feckless IOC and its corporate sponsors," according to a Reuters report.

Beijing Winter Olympics

United States politicians and rights activists sharply criticized China's abuse of its Uighur population, as well as ethnic cleansing in Tibet.

They also scrutinized the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong, according to an Al Jazeera report.

Pelosi described the Chinese government's action on Uighurs as "horrible" and "diabolical." She then called the Xinjiang camps "slave labor."

Since 2017 China has allegedly arbitrarily detained or imprisoned up to a million Uighurs, with many placed in camps and subjected to tight surveillance.

They were also subjected to forced sterilizations while destroying hundreds of mosques in Xinjiang.

However, China has denied accusations of human rights abuses and genocide.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said the U.S. government would not be sending officials to attend the games. Meanwhile, other nations chose to boycott the games, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria were also among the nations that chose not to attend the games. Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Japan will also not be joining the Winter Olympics.

Jewher Ilham, the daughter of Uighur academic economist Ilham Tohti, noted that millions of Uighurs have been imprisoned in camps.

Tohti is serving a life sentence for advocating regional autonomy for Xinxiang.

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Pelosi warns U.S. Olympians of 'ruthless' Beijing - from Reuters