INTERNATIONAL: The United States has announced on Monday, it will not send government officials to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, after China has pledged unspecified "countermeasures" against any such diplomatic boycott. President Joe Biden has declared last month that he was considering such a diplomatic boycott amid criticism of China's human rights record, including what Washington says is genocide against minority Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has announced that the Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. She says this is due to China’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. However, she highlights that the athletes on Team USA have the government’s full support.
Joe Biden has told Chinese President Xi Jinping, standing up for human rights is in the DNA of Americans. U.S. says it has a fundamental commitment to promoting human rights, and it feels strongly in a position and will continue to take actions to advance human rights in China and beyond.
Psaki says, "Everybody can call it whatever they want to call it, I would just remind you that often when you use diplomatic boycott, that phrase that brings people back to 1980 and we are not -- the athletes will be participating. We will be rooting for the athletes from home. I am an Olympics obsessed person, so I'm looking forward to doing that. But I think this is just an indication that it cannot be business as usual, that not sending a diplomatic delegation sends that message. That does not mean I think this was your question just to come back to it, that we are, that this is the end of the concerns we will raise about human rights abuses in Xinjiang.”
She has added that they have already taken a number of steps. She says, “We've been a leader in the world and leading actions through the G7. We're obviously also working with Congress. But this is just sending a message that given these human rights abuses, we cannot proceed with business as usual. "
Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has said earlier in Beijing that those calling for a boycott are "grandstanding" and should stop "so as not to affect the dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States in important areas." He emphasizes, no one cares if politicians come to Beijing Winter Olympics or not, amid a report that the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also considering a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
The United States is next due to host an Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, raising the question of how China might respond in the interim.
