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US prepares diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

2021-12-06T15:05:48.842Z


Biden is under pressure from Congress not to send officials to the sporting event that starts in February, although that would not prevent American athletes from participating.


By Peter Alexander and Dennis Romero -

NBC News

The government chaired by Joe Biden plans to announce this week its diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics to be held next February in Beijing, according to an Administration source on Sunday night.

If confirmed, it would mean that no government official would attend the sporting event, although that would not prevent American athletes from continuing to compete.

In any case,

a total boycott is not expected

.

CNN was the first to report the news.

A woman visits Shougang Park on November 9, 2021, where the logos of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China are displayed.

Ng Han Guan / AP

China responded on Monday by transcending Biden's intentions: "The Winter Olympics are not a stage for political spectacle and political manipulation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a news conference.

A boycott would be, in his opinion, "a serious stain on the spirit of the Olympic Charter," the document that contains the fundamental principles of the Olympic movement, and "a political provocation and a serious offense to the 1.4 billion Chinese," he said. .

Zhao also warned that China

will take "firm action"

against any boycott, which, he said, would affect "dialogue and cooperation with the United States on important matters."

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Biden has come under pressure from Congress to diplomatically boycott the competition in response to the lack of fundamental human rights in China.

China has been criticized for cracking down on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong;

for its policies towards Tibet and Taiwan;

and for detaining and mistreating Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

The State Department, along with European countries, called

China's actions against the Uyghurs genocide

.

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai tells International Olympic Committee she is safe

Nov. 22, 202100: 26

"We are very concerned about the human rights abuses we have seen," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last month.

Calls for a full or diplomatic boycott of the Games have grown since Chinese female tennis star Peng Shuai was not seen publicly for three weeks after accusing a former senior Communist Party official of sexual assault.

Peng eventually reappeared, but

doubts remain as to whether he is acting of his own free will or under the obligation of the authorities.

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Some consider that a diplomatic boycott is the best way to hold China to account without punishing the athletes who have been training for these Games for years.

Others suggest that Beijing would not care too much if politicians and diplomats were absent.

"Why should China care?" Reflected an editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper last month, referring to Western objections to the Games.

"China would lose if it cares about this strategy," he stressed.

If the United States imposes such a boycott, it

probably will not be alone

.

Canada, the UK and Australia are among those who have said they consider pushing for similar action.

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If a massive Olympic boycott were to occur, it would be the first since the Cold War.

Jimmy Carter's government led a sports boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 which was joined by more than 60 countries by the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union a year earlier.

In retaliation, the Soviet boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 was followed by 15 states.

Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has reiterated that he is against boycotts against the most important event of his organization.

"A sports boycott is useless," he said last year, recalling that the Soviet Union remained in Afghanistan for nine years after the 1980 boycott of its invasion.

"It only hurts the athletes and it hurts the population of the country because they lose the joy of sharing," he said.

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The International Olympic Committee has been accused of being too soft on China, both in the Peng case and in allowing China to host the Games.

Mounting pressure on China comes as the Uyghur Court, a non-governmental body set up by UK lawyers, sets out on Thursday to issue a finding on whether China's actions against its Muslim minority amount to genocide, as it claims. USA.

China claims that the camps in which, according to human rights groups, about a million people have been held are for "education and vocational training", necessary to fight internal terrorism.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-12-06

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