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White House confirms diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Olympics
- US officials will not attend, but athletes will take part and ‘have our full support’, White House press secretary Jen Psaki says
- China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian had said Beijing would take ‘resolute countermeasures’ if the boycott proceeded
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The United States will conduct a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday, a move almost certain to fray a badly damaged US-China relationship even further.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” Psaki said.
“The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 per cent as we cheer them on from home,” she said. “We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.”
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Beijing denies all accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Before the announcement, China’s foreign ministry said earlier on Monday that there would be “resolute countermeasures” if the US went ahead with a diplomatic boycott, though it did not specify what those might be.
The US “should stop hyping the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ of the Beijing Winter Games, lest it should affect bilateral dialogue and cooperation in important areas”, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
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