The United States will not send any diplomatic representatives to the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, due to “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” the White House announced Monday.
By being present, “the American diplomatic representation would treat these Games as if nothing had happened, despite the gross human rights violations and China’s atrocities in Xinjiang. And we just can’t do that, ”said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
With this boycott, no representative of the United States government will attend the Olympics or Paralympics, but American athletes will compete well.
“The athletes of Team USA have our full support. We will be 100% behind them while we encourage them from here, ”said Jen Psaki.
For months, the US government had been looking for the best way to position itself with regard to the Winter Games, a popular and global event organized from February 4 to 20, 2022 by a country it accuses of perpetrating a “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, northwest China.
Several human rights organizations accuse Beijing of having interned at least one million Muslims in Xinjiang in “re-education camps”.
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