The White House's recent announcement to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in response to ongoing human rights abuses in China has drawn mixed reactions.
The diplomatic boycott was announced by the White House on Dec. 6. While athletes are not restricted from participating, U.S. officials will not attend and “treat these Games as business as usual,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” Psaki said during the briefing.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) applauded the action in a Dec. 6 press release.
“The Chinese government’s systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom and other human rights of Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and many others betray the Olympic spirit. In fact, a genocidal regime should not have been granted the privilege to host the Olympics in the first place," USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel said in the release.
State Department spokesman Ned Price also commended the White House announcement during a press briefing, but added that despite the boycott, the United States would have diplomatic personnel on hand to support the American athletes.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the action in a statement released from her office.
“I applaud President Biden’s strong leadership in announcing that there will be no official U.S. diplomatic presence at the 2022 Winter Olympics.” Pelosi said. “While we must support and celebrate our athletes, America – and the world – cannot give our official imprimatur to these games or proceed as if there is nothing wrong with holding the Olympics in a country perpetrating genocide and mass human rights violations.”
Some in Congress feel the diplomatic boycott is not enough. Appearing on Fox News, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he worried about the safety of U.S. athletes.
“I mean, China will take hostage and disappear one of its own tennis stars and trot her out for hostage videos,” Cotton said on Fox News, referring to Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai who was forcibly taken by Chinese authorities following her accusations of sexual harassment by a government official. “What will they do to one of our athletes if one of those young men or women should dare speak up about Tibet or Hong Kong or Taiwan, or any of China's crimes against the civilized world?”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also believes the diplomatic measure stops short of what should be done, repeating his previous call for the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Games out of China in a statement released by his office.
“President Biden had the chance to actually stand up to Beijing’s genocide and human rights abuses, but again, he has chosen appeasement and weakness over strength and resolve," Scott said. “That Biden has spent months ignoring calls from me, human rights groups and others to demand that the International Olympic Committee to move the Games to a country that actually respects human rights.”
Hua Chunying, assistant minster of foreign affairs for the Chinese regime, blasted the announcement on Twitter, implying that U.S. diplomats were not invited in the first place.
“The Beijing Winter Olympic Games is a party ‘by invitation only.’ Some U.S. politicians need not flatter themselves by ‘weaponizing’ their attendance. One can't decline an invitation without first receiving one,” Chunying wrote in a Dec. 7 Twitter post.
