The United States said Dec. 6 it will not send an official delegation to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics in protest against the Chinese regime’s ongoing human rights crisis in Xinjiang. The move will not affect American athletes, who will still be allowed to compete.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the regime’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” means Washington “cannot proceed with business as usual.”
“U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC’s [People’s Rebublic of China] egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can’t do that,” Psaki told a daily press briefing on Monday, weeks after President Joe Biden said the administration was considering such a move.
“As the president has told President Xi, standing up for human rights is in the DNA of Americans, we have a fundamental commitment to promote human rights,” she added, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two leaders had met for the first time virtually on Nov. 15.
The Chinese regime’s expansive campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far west Xinjiang region, designed by the United States and others as a genocide, has drawn rising international condemnation. Activists and lawmakers around the world have called for varying levels of boycotts of the Beijing Games in response.
The last time the United States staged an Olympic boycott was 1980. Then-President Jimmy Carter led more than 60 nations to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and refused to compete in the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, forming the largest boycott in Olympic history.
Unlike the 1980 diplomatic protest, the boycott will not affect the athletes in attendance.
“We don’t think it’s the right step to penalize athletes who have been training, preparing for this moment, we felt we could send a clear message by not sending an official delegation,” Psaki said when asked why the White House had not taken a step further by pulling out the athletes.
“The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home,” Psaki said.
The boycott is likely to provoke Beijing. At an earlier press conference on Monday, Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesperson, accused Washington of “grandstanding” and hinted at “resolute countermeasures” if the diplomatic boycott were to take place. The United States need to “adopt a right attitude” to avoid “bilateral dialogue and cooperation in important areas,” Zhao said.
Psaki, though, appeared unfazed by such warnings. “Our view’s that is not the correct way to view or frame our relationship,” she told reporters. “Our view is that cooperation on transnational issues is not a favor to us, it is not a transaction, the PRC should be taking actions on issues to meet the needs of the global community,” she said, using the shorthand for People’s Republic of China.
Ned Price, State Department spokesperson, at a later press briefing clarified that U.S. consular staff in Beijing would still be available during the Games to assist American athletes and the team.
From The Epoch Times
