"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 announced that there would "indeed be a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a press conference on December 8, 2021 in Downing Street in London Adrian DENNIS POOL / AFP

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.

"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. it would be".

"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 the Chinese giant Huawei from British 5G infrastructures.

In front of the 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.

The United States will "pay"

Before the British and Canadian announcements, the decision of the United States had aroused the anger of Beijing, 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.

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 are coming 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.

Chinese diplomacy spokesman Wang Wenbin, during a press briefing, July 24, 2020 in Beijing GREG BAKER AFP / Archives

Washington in fact announced earlier this 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 blow".

Reacting to the Australian decision, Sophie Richardson, director of Human Rights Watch in China, hailed 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.

© 2021 AFP