The official communication has arrived, after repeated advances. The White House announced that no representative of the US administration will be present at the Winter Games in Beijing 2022: a diplomatic boycott, which will not involve sportsmen. It aims to send to the China a message about the defense of human rights in Tibet in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In fact, Beijing is accused of stifling the voice of the opponents and of violating the freedoms of religious minorities such as that of the Uighurs, persecuted and subjected to torture and violence. The latter is a situation that the White House has bluntly defined as “genocide”. The decision of Joe Biden it could lead to other similar ones by some countries. Among these Australia e UK.
Shortly before the official announcement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had made itself heard: “If the United States insists on going its own way, we will certainly adopt resolute countermeasures. The Winter Olympics cannot be the stage for a political provocation “, these are the words of the spokesperson. Zaho Lijian. “It would be a serious stain on the spirit of the Olympic Charter and a serious offense for one and a half billion Chinese”.
A perhaps symbolic choice which, however, risks putting an end to the attempt to thaw started weeks ago during the virtual summit between Biden e Xi Jinping. The no to Beijing Olympics on the part of the USA, while safeguarding the participation of American athletes, would in fact add to the tensions linked to the issue Taiwan. With the latter, unlike China, invited to the Conference for Democracy convened by Biden for the next few days. The story of the Chinese tennis star would have been decisive towards the diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 Peng Shuai, for three weeks disappeared from the public scene after having reported having been subjected to sexual violence by a former senior Communist Party official.
The position taken by Washington was in the air for some time, given the pressures of many environments outside and inside the Congress. To return to situations of Olympic boycott we must go back to 1980, when the administration of Jimmy Carter led over 60 countries that did not participate in Moscow Games to protest the king against the Soviet invasion ofAfghanistan. In retaliation four years later fifteen countries together with theSoviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Games.
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