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The administration of US President Joe Biden intends to soon announce a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. About it writes The Washington Post citing several sources familiar with the White House plans.
According to this information, neither President Biden nor any other US government officials will be present at the Beijing Games. This decision, according to sources, is intended to be a response from the US administration to the Chinese government’s human rights violations.
This decision will not affect the participation of athletes from the United States in the Olympics, the interlocutors emphasize.
According to the newspaper, the US administration has not yet technically finalized this decision, but an official recommendation has been given to the president. Sources of the publication say that the head of state intends to agree with her, which will be officially announced by the end of this month.
On November 15, Biden and Chinese President Xing Jinping held an online meeting that lasted three hours. According to The Washington Post, it was expected that Jinping would personally invite Biden to come to the Olympics, but this topic was not raised at all.
In May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the international community to declare a diplomatic boycott of the Chinese Olympic Games. In her opinion, within the framework of the diplomatic boycott, the heads of the leading countries of the world should refuse to participate in the Olympic Games in China.
Following Pelosi’s remarks, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused her spreading “lies and misinformation”; and using “the so-called human rights issue as an excuse to vilify China.”
In March, Republican Senator Mitt Romney proposed a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Romney noted that banning American athletes from participating in the Games will in no way help either the fight against the actions of the PRC authorities, or the athletes themselves. Therefore, in order to boycott China economically and diplomatically, the senator proposed to ban the attendance of the event for US viewers, and also not to broadcast some excerpts of the event, in particular, the alleged “Chinese propaganda” on the main TV channels. The senator also said that the PRC did not deserve the right to host the Games due to its actions against Hong Kong, harassment of the Uyghurs, alleged surveillance of citizens, preventing the expression of opposition opinions and other violations of rights.
The Winter Olympics in Beijing will be held from 4 to 20 February 2022.
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