China reacted angrily to the US government's diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics next year, as more countries said they would consider joining the protest over Beijing's human rights record and New Zealand announced it would not send representatives to the Games.
Chinese officials dismissed Washington's boycott as a posturing and political manipulation, and tried to discredit the decision by claiming that US diplomats had not even been invited to Beijing in the first place.
The White House confirmed on Monday that it wouldn't send any official or diplomatic delegation to the Winter Games and Paralympics in February, given the PRC's People s Republic of China's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. The athletes on Team USA have full support, said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary. We will be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home. We will not be involved in the fanfare of the Games. On Tuesday, the deputy prime minister of New Zealand, Grant Robertson, confirmed that the country would not send diplomatic representatives at a ministerial level. Robertson cited Covid-19 as the primary reason, but we have made clear to China on numerous occasions our concerns about human rights issues, he said.
The UK, Canada, and Australia have said they are considering their positions. Last week, Lithuania, which is facing trade and diplomatic hostilities from China over its growing relationship with Taiwan, announced that neither of its president nor ministers would attend the Games.
Chinese officials responded to the US announcement with outrage and pre-emptive dismissal. Liu Xiaoming, a former Chinese ambassador to the UK, said the Olympics were not a stage for political posturing and manipulation by the US politicians, who keep hyping a diplomatic boycott without even being invited to the Games. He said that this wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation.
It is a grave reversal of the spirit of the Olympic Charter, a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people. Liu's tweets were a reflection of the language of several other Chinese officials before and after the announcement.
China's embassy in Washington dismissed the boycott as a pretentious act and political manipulation Earlier on Monday, a foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, accused Washington of hyping a diplomatic boycott without even being invited to the Games and threatened unspecified resolute countermeasures if a boycott was announced.
A US boycott was supported by senior legislators, including Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House.
Boycott calls have intensified in recent months, as dozens of world governments mull about how to respond to Beijing's continued crackdown on ethnic minorities in China, its intervention on Hong Kong and other human rights issues. Demands have escalated over the case of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who was not seen for almost three weeks after posting to social media an accusation of sexual assault against Chinese former vice-premier. She was later shown on state media to be in Beijing, but there are widespread concerns about her wellbeing and level of freedom.
Rights groups welcomed the US announcement and called for other governments to follow suit.
Mark Clifford, the president of the UK-based advocacy group Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, said global leaders had been shown the way by the US.
He said that he and the US and Lithuania should take up the only morally justifiable course of action by implementing diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing or accept that you are endorsing some of the most horrific abuses perpetrated by their own government in modern times.
The last time the US launched an Olympics boycott was the 1980 Moscow games, along with 64 other countries and territories in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the previous year.