REPORT: U.S. Announces Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics Over Human Rights Abuses

Source: CNBC

Published: December 6, 20211

By: Kevin Breuninger

• The U.S. announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move that had garnered bipartisan support from critics of China’s human rights record.
• U.S. athletes will still participate in the games, but the Biden administration will not send any official representation to Beijing.
• President Joe Biden made the decision given China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

U.S. will not send officials to Beijing Olympics over human rights abuses

The U.S. on Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move that had garnered bipartisan support from critics of China’s human rights record.

While U.S. athletes will still participate, President Joe Biden’s administration will not send any official representation to the games, given China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

Psaki was referring to China’s reported treatment of Uighur Muslims in that northwestern territory that has been declared a genocide both by Biden and the administration of former President Donald Trump.

“The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games,” Psaki said.

“U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the [People’s Republic of China’s] egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can’t do that,” she said.

Diplomatic Olympic boycott ‘makes a lot of sense’: Leadership expert Sonnenfeld on China

“We will continue to take actions to advance human rights in China and beyond,” she said.

The move, which was expected, was preemptively criticized earlier Monday by China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. “It is a travesty of the Olympic spirit, it is political provocation, and an offense to the 1.4 billion Chinese people,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks.

“If the U.S. is insistent on going down the wrong path, China will take necessary and resolute countermeasures,” Zhao said.

Read more at: CNBC.com

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