China still plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, despite calls from human rights groups for countries to boycott.

To be held from Feb. 4 to 20 in Beijing and in Hebei Province surrounding the capital city, Beijing 2022 will be the first Winter Olympics to be held in China and the fourth in East Asia.

On Wednesday, a coalition of 180 rights groups demanded a boycott of Beijing 2022, claiming human rights abuses against ethnic minorities, including Tibetans and Inner Mongolians, in the country, and the curbing of freedoms in Hong Kong.

Key catalysts for the boycott Beijing 2022 campaign is the persecution of China's Muslim Uighur minority.

United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in October declared he's not ruling out Britain boycotting Beijing 2022.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said the games should go ahead in China. IOC President Thomas Bach recently called China's preparations for the Winter Olympics "almost a miracle."

The rights groups said in a statement that "it now falls on governments to take a stand and demonstrate that they have the political will to push back against China's reprehensible human rights abuses."

China has denied accusations of persecution, genocide and forced labor in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, and defended its harsh crackdown in Hong Kong as necessary to protect China's national security.