Japan will not send ministerial officials to the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, the Japanese government announced on Friday, December 24, after diplomatic boycotts decided by several Western countries, including the United States, in conjunction with the United States. human rights in China.
Japan avoids talking about a “boycott”
Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno avoided calling the move a boycott, but said Japan does not plan to send government officials
at the Winter Olympics in China.
Japan believes it is important that the common values shared by the international community, such as freedom, human rights and the rule of law, are also respected in China.
, he said.
The president of the organizing committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Seiko Hashimoto, will however go there, as well as the president of the Japanese Olympic committee Yasuhiro Yamashita, said the spokesperson for the Japanese government.
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Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee, will be present in Beijing. © AFP
Ms. Hashimoto will go to Beijing to express gratitude and respect to the athletes and others who supported the Tokyo Games
organized last summer, he added.
Japan made this decision after a thorough examination
of the question. It came after the US, UK, Australia and Canada this month announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games (February 4-20, 2022) to denounce human rights abuses of man in China.
China warned four Western countries, which will send athletes to the Games but not officials, that they will pay the price of their bad move
, without specifying what reprisals were envisaged.
On Friday, the spokesperson in Tokyo pointed out that the Japanese government did not intend to use a specific expression regarding the presence of Japan
at the Winter Olympics in China. And he noted that the US government’s announcement does not include the phrase diplomatic boycott
.
Delicate diplomatic position
Japan, host of the Tokyo 2020 Games postponed for a year due to the coronavirus, finds itself in a delicate diplomatic position between the United States and China, two major trading partners, and had so far not had makes its position known.
South Korea, another ally of the United States, for its part announced early last week that it would not diplomatically boycott the Games, citing the need to continue to cooperate with China.
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Yasuhiro Yamashita, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, will also be present at the 2022 Winter Olympics. © AFP
For its part, Russia considers the diplomatic boycott
as an attempt to politicize the Olympics and confirmed that President Vladimir Putin would go to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has invoked its neutrality
on the matter, declining to comment on purely political decisions
and especially rejoicing at the absence of a sports boycott.
The treatment of Uyghurs in particular questioned
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.
The United States denounces genocide
on this subject. Beijing claims that the camps are in fact vocational training centers
to fight radicalization.
China regularly accuses the United States of using the issue of human rights to thwart its economic development and challenge its growing place in international affairs.
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Beijing also lambasted the G7 and the European Union, which on Monday announced their deep concern
after erosion
of the democracy seen in Hong Kong last weekend during the local legislative elections.
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