Greek PM accepts Beijing Winter Olympics invite ahead of Euro boycott vote

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says he will attend the February Games in phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping

The European Parliament is expected to pass a resolution on Thursday calling for a diplomatic boycott over human rights concerns

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Concerns over China’s record on human rights have seen growing calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, with a vote in the European Parliament on the issue expected on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:00pm, 8 Jul 2021Updated: 10:28pm, 8 Jul 2021

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, breaking ranks with other EU members ahead of an expected non-binding resolution in the European Parliament calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Games because of alleged human rights abuses in China.

In a phone call with Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Mitsotakis accepted the Chinese leader’s invitation to attend the 2022 Games, according to the official readout from Athens. A statement from China’s foreign ministry said the two leaders also discussed strengthening ties between China and the EU.

Xi said China hoped to deepen cooperation with central and eastern European countries through the Belt and Road Initiative and delivered a similar message to Czech President Milos Zeman in a separate phone call on Thursday. The conversations followed Lithuania’s exit from the 17+1 grouping of China and countries in the region, citing poorer than expected trade benefits.

The European Parliament is set to vote on Thursday on the resolution calling for EU institutions and member states to “decline invitations for government representatives and diplomats to attend, unless the Chinese government demonstrates a verified improvement” in its human rights record, according to a draft of the motion seen by the South China Morning Post.

Greece, which has struggled with a decades-long debt crisis, has notably embraced relations with China in recent years, despite growing scepticism among EU states towards Beijing.

This has included an active Greek role in Xi’s signature belt and road infrastructure scheme which has placed Piraeus – said to be the oldest port in Europe – under the control of China’s state-owned shipping giant Cosco. In 2017, Greece also blocked an EU statement at the UN criticising China for its human rights record.

But concerns over human rights in China – including its alleged repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and political crackdown in Hong Kong – have increasingly come to the fore in Europe, with political momentum building for punitive actions such as a boycott of the Winter Games, set to run from February 4-20 in Beijing.