The U.S. is trying to lobby European countries to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, German media reported, citing diplomatic sources, but European countries have been lukewarm in response to fears that China will also boycott the Paris Olympics.
German newspaper Wirtschaftswoche quoted diplomatic sources as reporting that the advisers to the new U.S. President Joe Biden are trying to lobby European countries to boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing next February in protest of the oppression of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, and that the U.S. government intends to enact a bill to ban U.S. citizens from participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
However, one of the reasons for the lukewarm response so far in Europe is that Paris will host the Summer Olympics in 2024, and European countries fear that if they boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, China will boycott the Paris Olympics as a countermeasure, with one industry representative warning that it would be “an oopsie with serious consequences.
In addition, Biden is well aware that enough countries must join the boycott in order for it to succeed. The younger generation of Biden Administration advisors supported a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, but the older generation had reservations because the U.S. had led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with limited results because some Western countries did not join the boycott.
When Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, it also had a controversial human rights issue in Tibet that disrupted the flame relay events in various countries.
To ensure the smooth running of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Communist Party President Xi Jinping spoke with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach only on Jan. 25, stressing that China would be able to complete the preparations as scheduled. According to a press release from Chinese official media Xinhua, Bach said he would work to uphold the Olympic spirit and oppose the politicization of sport.
If China’s Winter Olympics go ahead next year, Beijing will become the first city to have hosted both the summer and winter Olympics.
Recent Comments