The United States has announced that its diplomats will boycott the Winter Olympics in protest against human rights violations in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
China has sharply criticised Washington for the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics and has promised that the USA will pay for it. “The US decision is a violation of the principle of no politics in sports. The US will pay for its misleading behavior. Their attempt to prevent the Games on the basis of ideological prejudices based on lies and rumours will only expose their dark intentions”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijiang said.
The Chinese spokesman did not specify what kind of retaliatory measures his country would take. White House press secretary Jen Psaki previously referred to “genocide and crimes against humanity against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang” and other human rights violations in the PRC to justify the US decision to boycott the Olympics.
At the same time, Psaki stressed that the boycott does not apply to American athletes. “The athletes of Team USA have our full support. We will support them one hundred percent and root for them from home,” she said. The US State Department later explained that US diplomatic personnel in Beijing would still be present at the Games to “reassure our athletes, coaches and people associated with the US national team that they are safe, but that this will be something other than an official diplomatic mission.”
A spokesman for the PRC Embassy in Washington said that the American boycott would have no effect on the Beijing Olympics, and no one, in his words, “… cares whether these people come or not.”
The head of the Australian government, however, seems to care and stated that they will not send high-ranking officials to the Olympics, which are scheduled for February next year. The US decision should come as no surprise given the diplomatic differences between the two countries in recent years, Morrison said. Canberra would be happy to talk about issues such as human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, but the Chinese government will not agree to this, the prime minister said.
The future German government, on the other hand, has no intention of joining the US diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics yet. Cabinet members “will very carefully discuss the attitude towards China with each other and with partners in Europe and around the world,” said future German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
According to him, many countries with which Germany maintains relations “have forms of government that are completely different from what we think is right,” but the new federal government should take care to “see these differences, but nevertheless get along with each other in the world. ” Scholz described this as “… a wise attitude to politics.”
Meanwhile, back in London people in high places are still in active discussion about whether the UK should or should not join the boycott. There is speculation that the prime minister will not attend the games, although the ambassador to China would.
