Washington – The United States has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
The White House said no official delegation would be sent to the Games because of concerns about China’s human rights record.
But it said US athletes could attend and would have the government’s full support.
China has previously said it will take “resolute countermeasures” in the event of a boycott.
US President Joe Biden said last month that he was weighing up a diplomatic boycott of the event.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the boycott on Monday, saying that the administration would not contribute to the “fanfare” of the Olympics.
“US diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang,” she said. “We simply can’t do that.”
The Biden administration’s diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics falls far short of a previous US boycott in 1980, when it pulled its athletes out of the Moscow Olympics to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the previous year.
The Soviet Union and its allies, in turn, boycotted the following 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.
Bipartisan support
Psaki said the US government did not feel “it was the right step to penalise athletes who had been training for this moment”, but that not sending an official US delegation to the 2022 Games “could send a clear message”.
The US is itself due to hold the Summer Olympics in 2028.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for the boycott as a means to protest against Chinese human rights abuses.
The diplomatic boycott was quickly praised by politicians from both sides of the political spectrum.
Republican Utah Senator Mitt Romney tweeted that the Biden administration was “right to refuse” a diplomatic presence at the Olympics.
Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she applauded the administration’s decision.
“While we must support and celebrate our athletes, America – and the world – cannot give our official imprimatur to these games or proceed as if there is nothing wrong with holding the Olympics in a country perpetrating genocide and mass human rights violations,” Pelosi said.
The US has accused China of repression of the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities living mostly in the autonomous region of Xinjiang.
Tensions have also risen over the way China has acted to suppress political freedoms in Hong Kong, and because of concern for the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who has accused a top government official of assault. (BBC)
