The US confirms its diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in Beijing

USA confirmed this Monday that he will not send any diplomatic representative to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in protest of human rights abuses in the Asian giant, although American athletes will participate in the event.

“The government (of US President Joe) Biden will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Psaki attributed the decision to “genocide and crimes against humanity that persist in (China’s northwestern region of) Xinjiang, as well as other human rights abuses” in China.

“The athletes of the United States team have our full support, and we will be supporting them from home, but we will not contribute to the fanfare of the Games,” said the spokeswoman for Biden.

The diplomatic boycott, which several US media had already advanced, seeks to “send a clear signal” that the human rights situation in China, where there are “egregious abuses,” cannot be treated as “normal”, said Psaki.

At the same time, the White House will not prohibit the participation of American athletes, something that would have been a complete boycott of the Games, because it does not want to “penalize” athletes who have been training for months or years to prepare for the Olympics, he added. .

The Chinese government indicated last week that it had no plans to invite US politicians to the Winter Games, although the International Olympic Committee had the final say on that possibility.

Biden’s decision is less drastic than the one made in 1980 by then-US President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), who announced a full boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

This meant that American athletes could not participate in the Games, unlike this time.

State Department spokesman Ned Price also recalled that this boycott is not the only step that the United States has taken or will take in response to the crimes against humanity that are being committed in China.

“When the United States speaks, when the United States takes action, the world listens,” said Price, who after recalling that this type of boycott is a sovereign decision that each country must make, acknowledged that the United States expects others to follow suit. and make the same decision in the next few days.

The spokesman wanted to separate in any case this boycott from the usual service that the diplomatic representation of the United States in China will give to American athletes who attend the Games, as is done on all occasions in any other country.