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The United States announced that it will not send its diplomatic representatives to the Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing in February 2022. However, it will allow athletes to participate. China had announced that it would take “countermeasures” if the boycott was carried out.
The decision, previously announced by several US newspapers and requested by some congressmen and human rights groups, was made official this Monday, December 6. The United States will not send its diplomatic delegation to the Asian giant for the next Winter Olympics, scheduled in February 2022 in Beijing.
The reason, the discontent with the “genocide and crimes against humanity that the People’s Republic of China is committing in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki at her daily press conference. .
In the crosshairs, the detention camps in the Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region, in the far West of China, anchored between Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tibet. Several minorities are detained there for forced indoctrination of the values of the Communist Party of China. Most are Muslim and do not adhere to his vision. The US State Department estimates that up to 2 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have passed through this network of detention centers.
Half a boycott
However, Psaki pointed out that the White House will not prohibit its athletes from participating in the event, a half boycott then, but more equitable for American athletes. According to the administration, Biden does not want to “penalize athletes who have been training and preparing for this moment, and we thought we could send a clear message by not sending an official delegation from the United States.”
Psaki added that, “Team USA athletes have our full support and we will be supporting them from home, but we will not contribute to the Olympic Games fanfare.”
Sarah Hirshland, executive director of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said the American Union Team was “excited and ready to make this one proud.” On a statementFollowing the boycott announcement, Hirshland said he appreciated “greatly the unwavering support of the president and his administration and we know they will cheer us on from home this winter.”
Many American athletes argued that it would have been unfair to ban them from sports competition while some American lawmakers, who supported not sending officials, have said it is in the interest of the United States that their national anthem plays in Beijing while Americans receive medals. .
A call for group action
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Robert Menéndez, described this diplomatic boycott as “a necessary step to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to human rights in the face of the excessive abuses by the Chinese government.” And he asked “other allies and partners who share our values to join the United States in this diplomatic boycott.”
Indeed, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada are already reconsidering the invitation from China. “Canada remains deeply disturbed by disturbing reports of human rights violations in China,” the Canadian Foreign Office said in a statement. “We were notified of the US decision and we will continue to discuss this matter with our partners and allies.”
Stefano Sannino, head of the European Union diplomatic service, said on Friday, December 3, that boycotts were a matter for individual member states, not the EU’s common foreign policy.
The only leader of the great nations to accept the invitation for now is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A “political manipulation” according to China
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has faced criticism for ignoring China’s history of rights violations, said the Olympics should go “beyond politics.”
“The presence of government officials and diplomats is a purely political decision of each government, which the IOC, in its political neutrality, fully respects,” said an IOC spokesman.
The Chinese embassy in Washington called the boycott measure by the United States “political manipulation.”
“In fact, no one cares whether these people come or not, and it has no impact on the successful holding of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics,” said the diplomatic headquarters spokesman Liu Pengyu.
Before the announcement, Chinese Foreign Minister Zhao Lijian said Beijing would take “countermeasures” should Washington go ahead with the boycott.
Washington’s decision remains less drastic than the one made in 1980 by then-President Jimmy Carter, who announced a full boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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