China Warns of 'Countermeasures' If Biden Admin. Boycotts Winter Olympics

China has responded to reports that the Joe Biden administration will announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games this week over human rights concerns, saying Monday that it would take "countermeasures" if necessary.

CNN reported Sunday that the Biden administration is expected to announce this week that U.S. government officials will not attend the Olympics in the Chinese capital. Lawmakers and rights campaigners have put pressure of the administration to completely boycott the Games.

Zhao Lijian, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman told a Monday news conference that those calling for a boycott were "grandstanding" and should stop "so as not to affect the dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States in important areas."

"If the U.S. insists in wilfully clinging to its course, China will take resolute countermeasures," Zhao said.

He added that the boycott would be "a stain on the spirit of the Olympic charter" and a "sensationalist and politically manipulative" move by U.S. lawmakers.

Zhao said the U.S. should refrain from "politicizing sports," and stop pushing for a diplomatic boycott.

The diplomatic boycott is not a full boycott—meaning it wouldn't prevent U.S. athletes from competing in the Winter Games, according to the CNN report. But traditionally, high-level delegations from competing countries attend Olympic Games.

President Joe Biden first mentioned in November that his government was considering a diplomatic boycott of the Games to protest China's human rights record, including what the U.S. says is a genocide against minority Uyghur Muslims.

Washington is also at odds with Beijing on several other issues—including Taiwan's and Hong Kong's sovereignty, as well as a crackdown in Tibet.

Biden made those comments days after a virtual meeting he had with China's leader Xi Jinping, which was intended to stave off tensions that might lead into a broader conflict between the world's two largest economies. The White House said at the time that the two men did not discuss the Olympic Games.

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment.

The last time the U.S. fully boycotted the Olympics was in 1980 when Jimmy Carter was president. That year, the Games were held in the Russian capital Moscow. The U.S. was leading the boycott, with 64 other countries, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Other countries that boycotted those Games included Canada, Israel, China, Japan and West Germany.

Four years later, the Soviet Union and 13 other countries comprising mainly of Eastern Bloc nations boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Zhao Lijian in press conference
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020. He told a Monday news conference that those calling for a boycott were "grandstanding" and... Greg Baker/AFP

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Jack Dutton is a Newsweek Reporter based in Cape Town, South Africa. His focus is reporting on global politics and ... Read more

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