Chinese citizens walk past a sign for the Beijing Winter Olympics in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China.
Lintao Zhang | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The United States and its allies are considering a joint boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the State Department said Tuesday.
“It [a joint boycott] is something we definitely want to discuss, “state spokesman Ned Price told reporters when asked about the Biden government’s plans ahead of the international games.
A coordinated approach will not only be in our interest, but also in the interest of our allies and partners, ‘he added.
Price said the United States had not yet made a decision but was concerned about China’s serious human rights abuses. The Olympic Games must take place between 4 February and 20 February.
The possible diplomatic boycott of the Olympics comes as the Biden government works to pull allies together to increase international backlash on China.
Last month, the United States approved two Chinese officials, citing their role in serious human rights violations against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The sanctions imposed by the Biden government complement actions taken by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Beijing had earlier rejected US allegations of genocide against the Uyghurs, a Muslim population native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. The Foreign Ministry calls such allegations ‘malicious lies’ designed to ‘smear China’ and ‘frustrate China’s development’.
The sanctions come on the heels of a controversial meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and Secretary of State Wang Yi in Alaska.
Prior to the Alaska talks, Blinken expressed the widespread use of ‘coercion and aggression’ on China on the international stage and warned that the US would push back if necessary.
“China is using coercion and aggression to systematically defend autonomy in Hong Kong, undermine democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, and enforce claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken said. said a news conference in Japan. .
Biden, who spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February, said earlier that his approach to China would be different from his predecessor in that he would work more closely with allies to bring back pressure on Beijing.
“We will face the economic abuse of China,” Biden said in a speech to the State Department, describing Beijing as “America’s most serious competitor.”
“But we are also ready to work with Beijing if it is in America’s interest to do so. We will compete from a strong position by building better at home and working with our allies and partners.”
Tensions between Beijing and Washington skyrocketed under the Trump administration, which escalated a trade war and worked to ban Chinese technology companies from doing business in the United States.
For the past four years, the Trump administration has blamed China for a wide range of grievances, including intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic.