United States President Joe Biden said Thursday “is considering” a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics slated for February in Beijing to protest human rights violations in China.
“This is something that we are considering,” he told reporters of the option of not sending government officials to represent Washington at competitions while still letting American athletes participate.
This track should arouse the ire of China, which has reacted strongly in the past to the mention of any form of boycott.
It could therefore lead to a new outbreak of diplomatic tensions between the two superpowers, just days after the virtual summit between President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping supposed to establish “safeguards” to prevent their many differences from degenerating into conflict. .
For months, the US government has been looking for the best way to position itself with regard to this popular and global event organized by a country it accuses of perpetrating a “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, in the northwest. from China.
Several human rights organizations accuse Beijing of having interned at least one million Muslims in Xinjiang in “re-education camps”.
The Chinese authorities systematically denounce “the interference” of Westerners who condemn this situation, assuring that they are “vocational training centers” to support employment and combat religious extremism.
“Total boycott”
So far, when asked about its decision, the Biden administration had taken no position, saying it wanted to coordinate with allies of the United States for a “common approach”.
But the deadline is approaching: winter sports have an appointment from February 4 to 20 in the Chinese capital.
the Washington post reported Tuesday that the Democratic president is expected to “approve” by the end of November the diplomatic boycott option formally recommended to him by his advisers.
The article in the American daily immediately aroused positive reactions from the many elected officials from all sides who pleaded for such a solution, but also the protests of those who would like to go further.
In recent months, resolutions and bills have multiplied in the United States Congress, some aimed at punishing companies that agree to sponsor the Beijing Olympics, others calling on the International Olympic Committee to move the competition to another. country.
The diplomatic boycott was proposed in May by the Democratic President of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
Several elected officials had supported it, some, such as Republican Senator Mitt Romney, having even introduced legislative amendments to impose it.
“I am hopeful that the government will send a strong message to the Chinese Communist Party without punishing American athletes,” he said on Tuesday.
Some senators have said they believe in recent days that the White House will decide in this direction before Congress has to legislate.
However, several Republican hawks urge Joe Biden to announce an outright boycott of sports competition by officials but also athletes.
“The United States must institute a full and comprehensive boycott of the Beijing Winter Games. The threat weighing on our athletes and the crimes against humanity committed by China leave us no other choice, ”said Senator Tom Cotton on Thursday at a press conference on this subject.
The American Olympic Committee is opposed to such a radical solution, explaining that the Games are important after months of a pandemic. He ruled that the boycott of the Moscow Games in 1980, by the United States and some sixty other countries, and of those of Los Angeles in 1984, by the Soviet Union and its allies, had shown that using these events as a “political tool” was a “mistake”.