 |
| Chinese President Xi Jinping is encouraging officials by visiting the Beijing Winter Olympics Stadium (Baidu Capture) © News1 |
China took a lead in remarks on the boycott of the’Beijing Winter Olympics’ in the United States. The United States took a step back and tried to clarify, but China did not hide its displeasure, saying that the United States politicized sports.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Li Zhen said in a regular briefing on the 7th, when asked about the boycott of the Beijing Olympics, a spokesman for the US State Department has already clarified that the United States has no intention of stopping the Beijing Olympics.
“The so-called’genocide’ (genocide) claim in Xinjiang is a lie of a thorough century,” said Zhao. “If the US ignores the truth and intentionally attacks China with lies, it will surely fail. US credit and profits will also suffer.”
“Politicizing sports is against the spirit of the Olympics and harms athletes and the business of each country,” Zhao said. “The United States, including the Olympic organizing committee, is against the claim that the United States can boycott the Olympics. The international community will not accept it,” he criticized.
Earlier on the 6th, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing that he would discuss with allies the absence of participation in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics regarding human rights issues in Xinjiang.
After the briefing, confusion over the boycott’s progress made it clear that Price had not yet entered into negotiations on the boycott proceedings. He explained that the United States is taking a coordinated approach rather than specifically discussing joint boycotts with allies.
In this regard, the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) cited the remarks of resident scholar Chen Chi Carnegie-Tsinghua Global Policy Center US-China relations, and if the US announces a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, the US ally Japan will face the greatest pressure, and China will retaliate. Said that it would bring.
Professor Chen said, “The United States needs to consider the situation of its allies, especially Japan,” he said. “But (the United States) will not give up the benefit of attacking China through an Olympic boycott, which has a high diplomatic risk.”
In this regard, Kato Katsunobu, Japanese Secretary of State, said at a press conference the day before, regarding the joint response to the Beijing Winter Olympics, “I know that the United States has such a perception, not that there is such an interaction between the United States and Japan,” NHK reported. .
Yasuhiro Yamashita, chairman of the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC), said he would like to see the situation and said that Japan’s plans to participate in the Olympics remain unchanged.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Games Committee (USOPC) also opposes the boycott, saying that the absence of the Beijing Olympics means using the athletes as “political hostages”.