Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the United States to “stop disrupting” the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday during a call with his American counterpart Antony Blinken.
China will hold an Olympic Games from Feb. 4 to 20 where it hopes to show off its ability to stage a big event amid the pandemic and its athletes’ progress in winter sports.
But Western pressure, particularly American, has increased in recent months on Beijing, accused of violating the rights of the Chinese ethnic minority of the Uyghurs as part of its fight against terrorism.
The United States has notably announced a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Olympics, that is to say that they will not send, at least not officially, diplomatic representatives to the event.
Washington convinced several Western allies to do the same.
“The top priority right now is for the United States to stop disrupting the Beijing Winter Olympics,” Wang Yi told Antony Blinken on Thursday, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.
The Chinese official also called on Washington to “stop playing with fire” on the Taiwan issue or “create all kinds of small factions to oppose China”.
China takes a dim view of the strengthening of ties between the United States and Taiwan. Chinese planes have increased aerial incursions into the island’s defense identification zone in recent months.
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged last week to counter Beijing’s Asia-Pacific ambitions.
The tenant of the White House should also go to Japan at the end of the spring, a visit which will be the occasion of a summit of the “Quad” – an alliance which brings together Australia, India, Japan and the United States and does not hide its desire to counter China.
NATO, theoretically focused on the defense of Europe, has also expressed its willingness to consider China as a new priority.