Washington officially boycots the Beijing Winter Olympics

Washington officially boycots the Beijing Winter Olympics (Illustrative image) REUTERS - THOMAS PETER

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The United States will not be sending official representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics.

According to the White House, one way of denouncing the oppression of the Uyghur community in China.

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" 

," said the White House spokeswoman. For the American administration, it is simply unthinkable to act "

" when "

" in China, especially in Xinjiang. In this specific case, Jen Psaki even uses the word “

 ” against

.

Non-governmental organizations claim that more than a million members of this Muslim minority are currently interned in camps. Before the decision was formalized, the Chinese Foreign Ministry threatened to take " 

" if US officials continued to call for a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics, calling it " 

 ".

The idea had been in the air for several weeks and the video summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping was not enough to lower the tension between the two countries.

American athletes will nevertheless participate in the event which will be held from February 4 to 20.

And there will still be American diplomatic personnel on site to ensure the security of the delegation.

#COMMENT

To be honest, Chinese are relieved to hear the news, because the fewer US officials come, the fewer viruses will be brought in.😌 https://t.co/a780Xr3oUV

- Global Times (@globaltimesnews) December 6, 2021

The International Olympic Committee is delighted that this decision is limited to the political camp and that American athletes can defend their chances, reports our correspondent in Washington,

. The American Olympic Committee had opposed a total withdrawal of the United States, explaining that the boycotts of the games in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984, in a context of the Cold War, had shown that the political use of these events was a mistake.

Last week, an American think tank published evidence of

himself in what many Western countries consider genocide.

The detention of over a million Uyghurs in re-education camps, birth control through massive sterilizations, forced transfers of Uyghur workers to factories and the criminalization of religious practices ... All of his actions were sponsored. and planned at the top of the state according to the researcher who revealed these documents classified top secret by the Chinese government.

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