Biden Administration officials to attend China Winter Olympics

o Biden Administration officials will attend China's Winter Olympics in February, the White House announced Monday. The use of forced labor and concentration camps to suppress a Muslim ethnic minority in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang is a rebuke to Beijing over China's use of forced labor and concentration camps.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the US would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang. The diplomatic boycott is an escalation of President Joe Biden's criticism of China's treatment of its Uyghur citizens in a pattern of abuses that a U.S. government has used against its citizens. Holocaust Memorial Museum November report said it was a case of genocide.

Biden's boycott only applies to U.S. government officials and won't affect U.S. athletes planning to participate in the games.

This year, there were zero Uyghur refugees. President Biden met China's President Xi Jinping virtually on November 15. According to the White House's official description of the meeting, Biden did not discuss the Winter Olympics, which are scheduled to start on February 4, but he said Biden raised concerns about China's actions in Xinjiang.

Since the meeting, China's government has been criticised for its treatment of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, a three-time Olympian who disappeared from public view after accusing a former Chinese leader of sexual assault.