(London) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday announced in turn a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics, to which “no minister” in his government plans to surrender.
The United States and Australia have already announced earlier this week a similar measure for the Games, which will begin on February 4.
“There will indeed be a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics,” Boris Johnson said during the weekly question-and-answer session in Parliament, stressing that a sports boycott is “not the policy” of his government.
Before MEPs, the head of the Conservative government stressed that London regularly raised with Beijing the issue of respect for human rights by the Chinese regime, in particular the treatment inflicted on the Uyghur Muslim minority.
“We regularly raise these matters with the Chinese and I did so myself recently with President Xi when I spoke to him recently,” said Boris Johnson.
The announcement of the US decision has angered Beijing, Australia’s contempt, with Chinese diplomacy saying that “nobody cares” whether Canberra is sending official representatives or not.
According to human rights organizations, at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking minorities, mainly Muslims, are being held in camps in Xinjiang. China is accused of forcibly sterilizing women there and imposing forced labor.
Beijing says the camps are in fact vocational training centers intended to keep their residents away from radicalization.