US announces diplomatic boycott of 2022 Winter Olympics in China
The United States said on Monday that it would not send government officials to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. China objected to America’s decision and threatened that Beijing would retaliate if Washington did a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in February. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that if the US did this, it would be a politically provocative action.
Significantly, in the year 2028, America will host the Olympics in Los Angeles. Beijing said it opposes the politicization of the game. President Joe Biden said last month that he was considering a diplomatic boycott over alleged human rights violations in China. Washington had talked about the massacre of minority Muslims in Xinjiang.
The White House usually sends a delegation to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, but this time it will not send a delegation under a diplomatic boycott. Top US lawmakers have called for a diplomatic boycott. There was no immediate response from the Chinese embassy in Washington. Some members of the US Congress have been encouraging a diplomatic boycott for months. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a news briefing, ‘We have our full support for the athletes of Team America. We are 100 per cent with them.’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration would not send any diplomats or official delegations to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. For this, the atrocities on Uighurs in Xinjiang were cited as the reason.
