There will be no US government representatives at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. White House spokesman Jen Psaki announced Monday, explaining that this “diplomatic” boycott is due to the fact that China “continues to commit genocide and crimes against the country. humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights violations ”. In fact, the United States accuses the Chinese government of carrying out a genocide against the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority of the region, of Muslim religion.
Psaki also specified that the boycott will not affect American female athletes, who will have the “full support” of President Joe Biden’s administration. He said it would not be the “right move” to prevent participation in sports and sports, and that a complete boycott would indeed be unfair to them. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it respected the American choice.
The United States has informed the countries it is allied with of its decision, but has not asked anyone to join the diplomatic boycott. The choice was expected, however – last month Biden said he was thinking about it – and China had said it would take “resolute countermeasures” in response to such an initiative.
The last time the United States boycotted the Olympic Games was in 1980, and on that occasion, US female athletes were prevented from competing: that year the Olympics were held in Moscow and then President Jimmy Carter decided the boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which began on December 25, 1979. The US decision was followed by 65 countries including Canada, West Germany, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Israel and China.
The Olympic Committees of 15 other countries, including Italy, instead decided to participate, but to protest the invasion of Afghanistan they did so under the Olympic flag instead of the national ones. In the subsequent Olympics, those of 1984 in Los Angeles, the Soviet Union and 13 other countries did not participate, in response to the previous boycott.
