USA in diplo Olympic boycott

The Biden administration Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of February’s Beijing Winter Olympics over what the White House deemed China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities.”

The move means that no US officials will attend events like the opening or closing ceremonies — but American athletes will still be allowed to compete at the Feb. 4-20 Olympics.

“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,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

She added that while “the athletes on Team USA have our full support, we’ll be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home, we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.”

“As the president has told [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping], standing up for human rights is in the DNA of Americans,” Psaki continued. “We have a fundamental commitment to promoting human rights, and we feel strongly in our position and we will continue to take actions to advance human rights in China and beyond.”

Earlier Monday, China’s government threatened “firm countermeasures” if the boycott went ahead and noted that no US official had formally been invited to attend the Games.

Republican lawmakers and human-rights activists have called for a full boycott of the Olympics in response to China’s rights abuses — most notably genocidal actions against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

When pressed on why American athletes would not be kept home, Psaki noted the White House did not feel like “it was the right step to penalize athletes who had been training, preparing for this moment.”