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The 2022-Winter Olympic games slated in Beijing, China might face diplomatic boycott from the US and a few other countries.
US President Joe Biden has said that he is weighing a US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. “That is something we are considering,” he told ahead of talks with Mexico and Canada.
A diplomatic boycott would mean that no US officials will attend the games. The development comes amid rising tension between US and the China. At the White House, Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the US and China leaders did not discuss the Olympics during their three-hour virtual meeting held recently.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the US have called for a diplomatic boycott as a means to protest against Chinese human rights abuses.
A diplomatic boycott would not affect athletes, but Psaki said the US is still finalising about presence at the games, which are due to begin from February 4 next year. The US has accused China of genocide towards the Uighurs – a Muslim minority group which lives mostly in the autonomous region of Xinjiang.
Tensions have also risen over the way China has acted to repress political freedoms in Hong Kong. Biden’s comment came as he was hosting Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for formal talks at the White House.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told that US consideration of a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics was driven by concerns about human rights practices in Xinjiang province. “There are areas that we do have concerns. Human rights abuses,” Psaki said.
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“Certainly there are a range of factors as we look at what our presence would be,” she said, while declining to provide a timeline for a decision.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was talking to countries around the world about the participation in games. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also called for a diplomatic boycott, saying global leaders who attend would lose their moral authority.
Some Republican lawmakers have been calling for a complete boycott of the Olympics.
