Washington has made it official that no American executives will participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, while athletes will be regularly present. The move is intended to be a strong signal on the front of the defense of human rights. Now other countries could follow Biden’s lead
Official time: the boycott will take place. The White House has confirmed that no American executives will participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. This is a diplomatic and soft boycott, because the athletes will still be present at the Olympics scheduled from 4 to 20 February 2022 and the Paralympics that will follow from 4 to 13 March 2022. The move – which intends to give a hard signal on the front of the defense of human rights – could open the door to similar decisions by other countries, starting with Australia and the United Kingdom.
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A signal
Lannouncement had been in the air for some time, given the pressure from many circles inside and outside Congress to adopt one hard line to send a clear message to China on the front of the defense of human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In fact, Beijing is accused of stifling the voice of opponents and of violating the freedoms of religious minorities such as that of the Uighurs, persecuted and subjected to torture and violence. A situation, the latter, that the White House has bluntly called genocide.
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China’s response
The response of the Chinese foreign ministry, which has always rejected any intrusion into its internal affairs, was not long in coming: If the United States insists on going its own way we will certainly take resolute countermeasures. The Winter Olympics cannot be the stage for a political provocation – said spokesman Zaho Lijian -. It would be a serious stain on the spirit of the Olympic Charter and a serious offense to one and a half billion Chinese. However symbolic, therefore, the decision of the diplomatic boycott is likely to be the gravestone on the attempted thaw initiated two weeks ago during the virtual summit between Biden and Xi Jinping
, with the aim of restoring relations between the two economic and military superpowers on tracks that avoid conflict. The US refusal to the Beijing Olympics, while safeguarding the participation of American athletes, would in fact be added to the tensions related to Taiwan issue
. With the latter, unlike China, invited to the Conference for Democracy convened by Biden for the next few days.
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Il caso Peng Shuai
It would have been to tip the scales definitively for the diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 the story of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, disappeared for three weeks from the public scene after having reported sexual harassment by a former senior Communist Party official. A story that has shaken American public opinion. It matters little, therefore, whether Biden’s decision to desert Beijing 2022 is destined to create further friction with the International Olympic Committee, which is opposed to any form of boycott but in turn accused by Washington of being too compliant with the Chinese authorities.
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The previous from 1980
To return to situations of Olympic boycott we must go back to 1980, when Jimmy Carter’s administration led over 60 countries that did not participate in the Moscow Games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In retaliation four years later fifteen countries together with the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Games.
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December 6, 2021 (change December 6, 2021 | 20:01)
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