The White House stated Monday that the Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official officials to Beijing for the next round of Winter Olympics, citing China's "ongoing atrocities and crimes against humanity" in the Xinjiang region.
"Team USA athletes have our full support. "We will be 100 percent behind them as we cheer them on from home," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, but added, "We will not be adding to the hype of the game." ""Games," she said.
Psaki's allegations of mistreatment were directed at the Chinese government's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province, who had been targeted in recent years.
The long list of potential violations includes systematic state-sponsored mass incarceration, torture, and persecution of Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang province.
The diplomatic boycott was expected, and it came after earlier international condemnations of China's treatment of ethnic minorities. The US joined the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada in putting economic penalties on China early this year in response to the government's human rights violations.
Critics claim that the Beijing Winter Games, which will take place in early February, are China's effort to use the global appeal of a sporting event to obscure its abysmal human rights record.
The Washington Post quotes Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lijian as stating on Monday, soon before the White House announced the boycott, "I want to underscore that the Winter Olympic Games is not a venue for political posturing and manipulation."
President Biden conducted a multi-hour video conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping only weeks before the boycott decision.
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