US lawmakers want to add boycott of China’s Winter Olympics to defence bill
- The amendment proposed by a bipartisan group of senators targets federal spending to support US government employees attending the 2022 Beijing Games
- It calls for an ‘end to the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing human rights abuses, including the Uygur genocide’
A bipartisan group of US senators on Thursday proposed an amendment to an annual defence policy bill that would impose a diplomatic boycott of China’s Winter Olympics – less than 100 days away – amid accusations of rights abuses by Beijing.
The amendment, led by Republican Senator Mitt Romney, mirrors language included in sweeping China-related legislation the Senate passed in June, and would prohibit the secretary of state from spending federal funds to “support or facilitate” the attendance of US government employees at the Games.
The new amendment, if approved, would add the diplomatic boycott provision to the 2022 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), a defence bill Congress has passed every year since 1961.
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The amendment calls for an “end to the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing human rights abuses, including the Uygur genocide”, but allows US funding for athletes, as well as the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its employees and contractors.
Such a boycott “will hurt the Chinese Communist Party, rather than punish our American athletes,” Romney told Reuters in a statement.