Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australian officials will not attend the Beijing Winter Olympics and join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the games next year.
Morrison told reporters in Sydney that it was not surprising given the deterioration of the diplomatic relationship between Canberra and Beijing that officials wouldn't attend the winter games next year.
Australian athletes will be there, the prime minister said on Wednesday. Australia is a great sporting nation and I very much separate the issues of sport from these other political issues. Morrison said he would like to see longstanding tensions between Australia and China resolved, but he said the government did not intend to step back from the strong position we had stood up for Australia s interest. Morrison said the Chinese government had not made itself available to talk through Australia's concerns about human rights.
The prime minister was asked if he expected retaliation from China in response to the boycott. Morrison said that any reprisals would be completely and utterly unacceptable, and there would be no grounds for that. Morrison said Australia would continue to pursue policies in the national interest, because Australia remained open to dialogue with China regardless of their concerns with foreign interference legislation or foreign investment rules.
The New Zealand government has said on Tuesday it will not send diplomatic representatives to the Winter Olympics, citing a range of factors, but mostly to do with the Covid The Biden administration, which has also confirmed that the United States will pursue a diplomatic boycott. The White House press secretary Jen Psaki cited China's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. The decision resulted in a furious reaction from the Chinese government, which denies crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and dismissed Washington s boycott as posturing and political manipulation.