France and Germany were against the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China and called for a common response from the European Union (EU). This week, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia announced that they will not send their government delegations to the iconic sporting event in retaliation to China for its history of human rights abuses. Beijing responded that the nations leading the boycott “will pay the consequences.”
Although Paris and Berlin say that human rights violations in China should be condemned, they point out that a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics is not the right answer.
At a joint press conference on December 9, the Foreign Ministers of France, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, indicated that they will not join the diplomatic snub against the sporting event.
Both governments insisted that a common position of the European Union is necessary due to the context.
A few minutes before, the French Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, confirmed that his country will send a government delegation to the Olympics organized by Beijing, in contrast to the measure announced by the United States on December 6 to send a message of warning to Beijing, which was followed as a domino effect by the UK, Canada and Australia.
“We must be careful with the link between sport and politics (…) Sport is a world apart that must be protected from political interference. Otherwise, things can get out of control and end up killing all competitions, said Blanquer. .
The German Olympic Sports Confederation also disapproved of the boycott and pointed out that, on the contrary, the space could be used to discuss issues such as respect for civil liberties.
Faced with reports that Germany has not yet officially registered a diplomatic delegation to send to the Olympics, the organization’s vice president, Stephan Mayer, told local press that there is still time to do so. “We have a new government now in Germany (…) I think we certainly still have the opportunity to send a political or diplomatic delegation to the Winter Olympics,” he stressed.
China issues warnings to boycott nations
The actions taken by some Western governments unleashed the ire of Beijing, which accused Washington, London, Ottawa and Canberra of using “the Olympic platform for political manipulation.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned that those governments “will have to pay the price for their wrongdoing.”
Despite long-standing complaints against the Chinese government for authoritarianism, deprivation of human freedoms and repression against minorities such as the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, the Xi Jinping Administration rejects any wrongdoing and maintains that the allegations are “fabricated.”
The United States was the first to announce the boycott and justified that its government officials would not attend due to China’s human rights “atrocities.” The announcement came weeks after talks aimed at easing tension between the world’s two largest economies, but bilateral ties are still going through one of their worst moments.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act with an overwhelming 428-to-1 majority, setting aside bipartisan differences.
The rule, which must now be approved by the Senate, seeks to ban imports from Xinjiang, where ethnic minority groups reside, due to concerns about alleged labor slavery.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng warned that the US stance would seriously harm the interests of the two countries’ businesses and consumers, exacerbate global supply chain strain and affect the global economic recovery.
What would a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics in China achieve?
The diplomatic boycott is a slight to the host nation, but the impact of these political weapons on athletes starring in the Olympics could be nil on spectators and athletes are not expected to see any difference.
However, the call was made by allied governments seeking to once again raise the alarm on China’s human rights record, especially on the treatment of its Uyghur people, which some call genocide.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) could also feel a blow, whose leaders have a keen sense of their potential place in world politics, even as they promote the neutrality to which it is bound by the Olympic Charter.
However, the organization publicly indicated that it “respects” the decision and its goal is for the best athletes in the world to compete.
“We always ask politicians for the maximum respect for our independence. We have known the decision of the United States, we understand it and we respect it, just like that of any other country. We can only say that we are happy that all the best athletes in the world go to be in the Olympic Village and to participate in the Games in 59 days, “said the president of the IOC Coordination Commission, Juan Antonio Samaranch.
This is not the first time that politics has interfered in world sport, the Committee bears scars from the boycott of more than one hundred countries to three consecutive Summer Games, between 1976 and 1984.
The 1976 Montreal Olympics were hit primarily by African countries protesting New Zealand’s involvement after their rugby team toured South Africa in the Apartheid era.
The 1980 Moscow Olympics went ahead without the United States and dozens of other teams protesting the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
Then, the Soviet bloc and some allies retaliated with a boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. But at that time, thousands of athletes lost the opportunity to compete in an Olympic Games, although the countries involved organized some “counter-matches.” Olympics “.
Independent for the purposes of the boycott of the 2022 Olympics in China, his announcement has already succeeded in hurting the pride of the host country that threatens retaliation, deepening tensions between the world’s strongest economies.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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