• On Monday, the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China, in 2022, because of the "genocide and crimes against humanity underway in Xinjiang".

  • On Wednesday morning, the Australians joined in this position, announcing that they would not send official representatives to Beijing.

  • A few hours later, the United Kingdom and Canada also decided to participate in this diplomatic boycott.

The United Kingdom and Canada joined the United States and Australia on Wednesday in the "diplomatic boycott" of the Beijing Winter Olympics, another setback for the Chinese regime accused by the West of trampling on human rights . "We are deeply disturbed by the human rights violations by the Chinese government," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference.

A few hours earlier, in London, during the weekly question-and-answer session in front of Parliament, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced that there would be "indeed a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics".

But British athletes will go to the Olympics which start on February 4, he continued, stressing that the sports boycott was "not the policy" of the United Kingdom.

China denounces "political manipulation"

The Chinese government has not invited "British ministers or officials, retorted a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London, saying that the Olympics are a sporting gathering," not a tool of political manipulation for any country. that is ". "The politicization of sport is a clear violation of the spirit of the Olympic charter, in particular of the principle of 'political neutrality'", continued the spokesperson on the website of the embassy.

There are many sources of tension between London and Beijing, between respect for human rights in Xinjiang, decline in freedoms in the former British colony of Hong Kong and the exclusion of Chinese giant Huawei from British 5G infrastructures. In front of British deputies, Boris Johnson assured that he regularly raised with the Chinese regime the question of human rights, at the heart of the decision of Western countries. Before the British and Canadian announcements, the decision of the United States had aroused the anger of Beijing, and that of Canberra, contempt.

To explain its decision, Australia has raised the issue of respect for human rights in Xinjiang, but other disputes exist between Canberra and Beijing, ranging from the issue of Australia's foreign interference laws to the recent ruling by '' acquire nuclear powered submarines.

"The United States will pay"

Asked at a press briefing on Wednesday, Chinese diplomacy spokesman Wang Wenbin said his country had never intended to invite senior Australian officials.

“Everyone does not care whether they come or not,” he said.

The Canberra decision "shows for all to see that the Australian government is blindly following in the footsteps of a certain country," Wang said, without naming the United States.

Washington announced at the beginning of the week a "diplomatic boycott" in the name of the defense of human rights.

Beijing retorted that "the United States will pay the price for its bad move."

Focus "on the athletes"

Asked about the risk that these cascading decisions pose to the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee once again invoked its "neutrality" to refrain from commenting on these "purely political decisions", especially welcoming the absence of a sports boycott. .

"The integrity of the Games is the integrity of sports competitions, which is why our attention is fully focused on the athletes", hammered Wednesday in front of the press Thomas Bach, the head of the body.

Xinjiang Labor Camps

Reacting to the Australian decision, Sophie Richardson, director of Human Rights Watch in China, hailed for her part a "crucial step towards challenging the crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese government against Uyghurs and other Turkish communities ”.

According to human rights organizations, at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking minorities, mainly Muslims, are being held in camps in Xinjiang.

China is accused of forcibly sterilizing women there and imposing forced labor.

Beijing says the camps are in fact vocational training centers to fight radicalization.

Sport

Olympic Games 2022: Beijing denounces the boycott of the United States and speaks of "ideological prejudice"

Sport

Beijing Olympics 2022: Taking care of human rights "is not within the remit" of the IOC, according to its vice-president

  • Diplomacy

  • Olympic Games

  • Canada

  • UK

  • China

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