Is it a joint Western boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics because of Beijing’s massive crackdown on Uighurs? The U.S. position appears to have backed off. The State Department said earlier that it was consulting with its allies on the issue, and hours later the White House said it was not consulting with allies and partners on a joint boycott of the Winter Olympics.
Is the U.S. consulting with allies on a joint boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics? The White House’s answer Wednesday seemed definitive? “We are not discussing any joint boycott with our allies or partners at this time,” said White House spokeswoman Sachs.
The White House spokesman’s statement was a marked departure from the position taken hours earlier by State Department spokesman Price, who said the U.S. wanted to consult with allies on a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Speaking to the media at a regular press conference, Price reiterated Washington’s strong concerns about genocidal actions against Uighurs in Xinjiang. Pressed by reporters on whether the U.S. would consult with its allies on a possible boycott, Price said the U.S. idea on the issue was to “consult closely with partners and allies around the world” to coordinate action. Asked again if the U.S. was discussing with allies whether to consider a boycott, Price replied, “That’s certainly something we’re discussing. “We certainly understand that a coordinated approach is not only in our interest, but in the interest of our allies and partners,” he added. Price’s statement changed a little later, however, when he clarified in an email that he was referring to the U.S. taking a coordinated approach with its allies, not that the U.S. was specifically discussing a joint boycott.
Price later added in a tweet that “2022 is still a long way off, but we continue to consult closely with our allies and partners on our shared concerns to reach a common (against China) consensus.”
The State Department’s statement sparked outrage in Beijing, but China seems to have realized something from the State Department spokesman’s subtle explanation, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian saying when asked by reporters that “the U.S. side’s statement has no idea of boycotting the Beijing Olympics,” Zhao said, adding that “politicizing sports Politicizing sports is against the spirit of the Olympic Charter”. Zhao Lijian reiterated that there is no genocide in Xinjiang and called the claim “an outright lie.
The State Department spokesman’s statement sent shockwaves through the U.S. sports community. U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee President Suzanne Lyons reiterated her opposition to the boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Wednesday. “We do not believe that U.S. sportsmen and women must be used as pawns on a political chessboard,” the statement said, adding, “We do not want to downplay the human rights issues taking place in China, but the U.S. government has many tools to respond constructively to this.” The U.S. Olympic Committee’s position is not surprising.
Many international human rights organizations, as well as U.S. political figures, have long called on U.S. authorities to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. Many have compared the Beijing Winter Olympics to the 1934 Olympics held in Nazi Germany. U.S. Republican Congressman Walz said the U.S. must stop participating in the Winter Olympics unless the games are relocated. The Rev. Mahaney, director of the Christian Guardian Alliance, was agitated to hear U.S. State Department spokesman Price say he was prepared to negotiate a joint boycott with allies, saying it would be a shame on the conscience for the United States to go to the Winter Olympics in a country that has committed genocide against Uighurs, suppressed and repressed Hong Kong and brutalized political and religious dissidents.
The leader of Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party has publicly asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pressure the International Olympic Committee not to hold the Games in “genocidal” China, and some British lawmakers are now pressuring the government to take similar action.
But White House spokeswoman Sachs is clearly backing off, at least, from any U.S. boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics at this point. A White House spokesman had said in February that no decision had been made on whether the U.S. would participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and the White House spokesman added that the U.S. would wait for a recommendation from the International Olympic Committee, but the latter has not responded so far.
During the Cold War, the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest of the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops, and in retaliation, the Soviet Union boycotted the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, four years later.
Lyons, president of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said that for our athletes, the only dream is to represent the United States. She also argued that the boycott could backfire. “Previous boycotts have proven that boycotts only hurt athletes and are not really effective in addressing international issues.”
Her statement seemed to echo Olympic Committee President Bach, who last month won the 1976 Montreal Olympic gold medal in fencing for West Germany but failed to shine again in 1980 because of the boycott of the Moscow Games, when he said, “Boycotting the Olympics has never led to anything.”
It has also been suggested that other more convenient forms of boycott could be used, such as national leaders not attending the Beijing Winter Olympics ceremony, and athletes participating in the Winter Olympics could also protest in a way they see fit, because the Olympics are like a grand international theater, where every move that happens on the field spreads quickly around the world and receives the attention of countless people, generating unexpected reactions ……
Beijing begins its Winter Olympics testing today and everything is in full swing. At the same time, international rights groups and political figures have stepped up their lobbying activities to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.
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