Beijing 2022 | The United States announces a diplomatic boycott of human rights violations

US athletes can participate in the Games despite the diplomatic boycott. “The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We stand behind them 100 percent when we cheer them up at home,” the president’s spokesperson said. “We will not only participate in the festive decoration of the event.”

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This action is reminiscent of the action performed by Barack Obama in 2014 at the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Then the US delegation to the opening ceremony consisted of former top gay and bisexual athletes, such as Billie Jean King. This was a protest against the “Anti-Gay Propaganda Law” introduced by Russia shortly before the Games.

The boycott of 2022 does not amount to the boycott that was applied in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics. The United States and many allies did not send the athletes that year due to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Remarkably, China was not present that year either. In return, the Soviet Union and its allies boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles four years later.

It is not only the United States that is struggling to deal with the way the Chinese government deals with the Uighur minority in Xinjiang. The European Parliament has called on national governments to avoid the opening ceremony in China this summer.

In February of this year, the House of Representatives passed a motion describing the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide. It is not yet known whether the Netherlands will decide to send official representatives.

China is not happy with the boycott

The Chinese government is not happy with the US boycott. “The Winter Olympics are a gathering place for winter sports enthusiasts and athletes from around the world, not a theater of political vanity and manipulation,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“In this way, sport is politicized, especially the principle that sport is politically neutral.” But he also points out that games do not hold or fall in the presence of politicians.

The Olympic Games are scheduled to be held from February 4-20, 2022.