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U.S. officials will not be making a trip to the 2022 Beijing Olympics after the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in China. The White House made the news official on Monday after speculation began circulating over the weekend.
The diplomatic boycott cites “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.”
While the sitting vice president or First Lady will not be making the trip to Beijing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the athletes will have the country’s full support. At the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, First Lady Jill Biden was in attendance.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic games given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” Psaki said in a statement. “The athletes on team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.”
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China has accused the United States of grandstanding, political posturing, and manipulation with the diplomatic boycott.
“I want to stress that the Winter Olympic Games is not a stage for political posturing and manipulation,” Zhao Lijian, spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said. “U.S. politicians keep hyping a ‘diplomatic boycott’ without even being invited to the Games.
“This wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation. It is a grave travesty of the spirit of the Olympic Charter, a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
The 2022 Beijing Olympics will begin on Friday, February 4, 2022, and run through Sunday, February 20.
