The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have already indicated that they will not send diplomatic representatives, but their athletes will travel.
This Thursday, China warned the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada that they will “pay” for their “wrong” decision to apply a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics next February.
Washington announced a boycott earlier this week, denouncing human rights violations in China and that the treatment of the Muslim minority Uighurs constitutes “genocide.”
The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada announced on Wednesday that they were joining the diplomatic boycott of this sporting event.
Although the measure only means not sending government delegates and will not prevent athletes from traveling, Beijing threatened retaliation on Thursday.
“The use by the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada of the Olympic platform for political manipulation is unpopular and isolationist and inevitably [estos países] they will pay the price for their wrong actions, “Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.
The Games scheduled between February 4 and 20, will be affected by the restrictions imposed by China on the entry of foreigners by covid-19.
This implies that few dignitaries will travel to the event, with the notable exception of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who accepted the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, also confirmed his presence, his spokesman announced on Thursday.
“The Secretary General received an invitation from the IOC to attend the opening of the Winter Games in Beijing and he accepted it,” said Stephane Dujarric during his daily press conference.
And France, for its part, described the diplomatic boycott of the Games as “symbolic”.
“You have to be clear. Either we say: ‘we do a complete boycott and we do not send athletes’, or we say: ‘we try to change things with useful actions,’ “French President Emmanuel Macron said during a press conference.
“We are in favor of a common position” of the European Union, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in a joint press conference with his German counterpart.
– Deterioration of relationships –
The four countries pushing for the boycott have seen their relations with Beijing deteriorate in recent years.
The UK, for example, criticizes China for its crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. Last year, the exclusion of the Chinese giant Huawei in the development of 5G telecommunications technology in the United Kingdom, also generated outrage in Beijing.
London made this decision after Washington raised espionage concerns.
For its part, ties between Canada and China were at their worst at the end of 2018 after the arrest in Vancouver of the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, by an arrest warrant issued by the United States.
Beijing responded by arresting two Canadian citizens, but in September the three affected were released and repatriated.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the boycott before Parliament, but maintained the position of the other three countries that athletes should participate.
In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained the decision out of concern about “human rights violations by the Chinese government.”
In the case of Australia, ties have gone through an acute crisis in the last two years due to the sanctions imposed by Beijing on Australian goods.
“Everyone doesn’t give a damn whether they come or not,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refrained from commenting on these “political” decisions and recalled that it is a “neutral” institution.
“The integrity of the Games is the integrity of sporting competitions and that is why our focus is totally on the athletes,” IOC President Thomas Bach said Wednesday.
Several human rights organizations have supported this diplomatic boycott, and Human Right Watch China Director Sophie Richardson called it “a crucial step in challenging the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity against Uighurs and other communities.”
Activists say at least one million Uighurs and other people from Muslim minorities have been imprisoned in camps in Xinjiang, where Beijing is also accused of forced labor and sterilization of women.
China argues that these camps are vocational centers to combat the appeal of Islamic extremist groups. (I)
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