White House Announces Diplomatic Boycott Of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
Written originally by Jack Kerley 7 Dec. 2021.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced Dec. 6 that the United States will not be sending diplomats to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games citing China’s human rights abuses.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics games given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Psaki said in the press briefing Monday.
Psaki announced that the White House had informed its allies of the decision to boycott but will leave their decision to join the boycott to their respective leaders, opting not to pressure other nations, CNN reported.
“Such acts will gain no support around the world and are doomed to fail,” China’s envoy to the United Nations, Zhang Jun said in a video released by Chinese state-run media, CGTN.
The Chinese government also accused the United States of politicising the Olympic Games and warn of “resolute countermeasures,” ABC news reported.
China has threatened foreign nations before over the threat of a boycott.
“China is a sporting and economic power with growing political influence. If any country is encouraged by extremist forces to take concrete actions to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, China will definitely retaliate fiercely.” the Global Times, another Chinese state run media, said in an op-ed in February.
The now Chinese Dictator, Xi Jinping was tasked by the Communist Party of China to oversee the political aspect of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Guardian reported.
The games were seen as China’s ’emergence’ onto the world stage in the hope that the nation would liberalise and move toward Democracy, the Guardian reported
Headlines about the treatment of the Tibetan people dashed any hopes that the Chinese government was going to democratise and time has shown China becoming far more authoritarian and oppressive, German state owned DW reported.
The World Uyghur Congress has penned an open letter, with 180+ human rights organisations calling for a boycott, The BBC reported.
Some detractors are labelling these Winter Olympics the ‘Genocide Games,’ and up to 20 countries have apparently refused to sign China’s Olympic truce, Sydney Morning Herald reported.