Search module is not installed.

Us to boycott 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing

06.12.2021

The U.S. is going to hold a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over human rights atrocities against Uyghur Muslims in genocide in Xinjiang. China has pledged to take firm countermeasures in response to the U.S. boycott.

The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses, said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary.

Psaki said that the administration will continue to advance human rights in China and beyond. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N. J., called the boycott of the Olympics a necessary step to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to human rights in the face of the Chinese government's unconscionable abuses. Biden is going to host a White House Summit for Democracy, a virtual gathering of world leaders from over 100 countries on Thursday or Friday. The Associated Press reported that Biden intends to use the meeting to announce both individual and collective commitments, reforms, and initiatives to defend democracy and human rights at home and abroad.

Zhao Lijian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, accused U.S. leaders of grandstanding and called the boycott an outright political provocation, but gave no details on how China plans to retaliate.

The Biden administration s decision to boycott the Olympics recalls how former president Jimmy Carter boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in response to the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan, which was supported by 60 other countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the only foreign leader who has committed to attending the games in February.

The Olympics are often attended by U.S. presidents. Former President Obama attended the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and former President Bush attended the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.