The United States on Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, citing human rights abuses, in a move that will not stop US athletes from competing, IgbereTV reports.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games given the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
“The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home.”
For months, the US government has been trying to find the best way to position itself with regard to the Winter Games, hosted from February 4-20, 2022 by a country it accuses of perpetrating “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, northwest China.
Several human rights organizations have accused Beijing of having interned at least one million Muslims in Xinjiang in “re-education camps”.
Sending official representation to the Olympics would signal that, despite China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang,” the Games were “business as usual,” Psaki said
