U.S. diplomats boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Peyton Renwick, Reporter

On Monday, Dec. 6, the Biden Administration stated that they would not send any government officials to the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing. This is due to allegations and concerns regarding China’s abuse of human rights.  

The United States were the first major power to boycott these Olympics, with Australia, UK, Canada and Britain following them shortly after. Chinese officials were unhappy with this news, leading them to warn the U.S. of “resolute countermeasures.” It is unclear what this means at this time.

According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, they boycott was distinctly due to China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity Xinjiang.” China has allegedly been committing social crimes against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims for a while.

Although there will be no American officials in attendance, the athletes are still able to participate for the United States. Psaki had added that the United States government did not feel it “was the right step to penalize athletes who had been training for this moment.” This partial boycott was mainly meant to let China know that their human rights treatment is not tolerable, and that they need to turn things around.

During this boycott, the athletes were in full support. Although the United States government has a lot of support, the Indian and Russian governments are backing up the 2022 Olympics and are hoping to keep it in Beijing. The last time a boycott like this had happened, was for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and only 80 teams had participated. 

This boycott may also cause more issues. There are currently many protests in the streets, countries at social war, and it is causing issues. Many ideas insist on moving the event to another country, and China is not taking this lightly.