Elpaís: United Kingdom, Australia and Canada join the US diplomatic boycothing to winter games in China

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The exterior spokesman of the Asian country accuses Canberra of “Postureo” and to “blindly follow what others do”

Several protesters, With posters in favor of the boycott of the Olympic Games of
Winter 2022 in Beijing, During a protest in Sydney, he 23 June.
SAEED KHAN (AFP)

Rafa de Miguel / Agencies
London / Sydney / Beijing – 08 DIC 2021

Australia, United Kingdom and Canada add to the United States in their diplomatic boycothing to Beijing Winter Olympic Games in February. The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison; The British, Boris Johnson, and that of Canada, Justin Trudeau, They made their decision yesterday. Other allies are also considering joining the US initiative to protest what the White House defined on Monday as “atrocities.”” of China on human rights.

A few hours later the British Prime Minister joined, Boris Johnson: “There will be a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. "It is not expected that any minister or public official will attend these games.", Johnson said in the House of Commons. Responding to Ian Duncan-Smith's direct question, former leader of the Conservative Party and spokesman of the most belligerent parliamentary group against the Chinese Government. "I don't think so, however, that sports boycotts are something reasonable”, The Prime Minister has replicated before the demands of a more severe response to the "Beijing dictatorial and Brutal Regime". The escalation in the repression of the Chinese Government of Xi Jinping against the activists for democracy in Hong Kong or against the Uigures and other minorities in the Xinjiang region has forced the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who promised to make human rights a pillar of their foreign policy, to take some measure.

The Australian leader, Morrison, He has justified the decision referring to the lack of response from Beijing to several issues raised by his country on two issues: The alleged human rights abuses in the Chinese western region of Xinjiang, Uigur Muslim minority home, And also to the commercial barriers adopted by Beijing to the detriment of Australian imports. "Therefore, It is not surprising that Australian diplomats do not travel to China to attend those games ”, The Government Chief declared to journalists in Sydney.

Trudeau, For its part, He explained to the journalists who had made that decision for the "repeated human rights violations of the Chinese government", informa Reuters.

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Wang: "Si los diplomáticos australianos vienen o no, Nobody cares"

Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Wenbin, In a press conference in Beijing.
PHOTO: THOMAS PETER (REUTERS) | VIDEO: REUTERS

China has already reacted to the Australian Executive's announcement and has done so in a less angry tone than the one it used after learning that the United States would boycott the sporting event.. If the US announcement caused Beijing to warn Washington that it would “pay the price” and threatened retaliation, The reaction to Australia's decision has been to declare, through the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin: “If they come or not, “No one cares.”. The spokesperson also stated that Australian politicians engage in “political posturing.”. “Australia's decision not to send political representatives to the Games shows that this country is only blindly following what others are doing.”. "They are not able to distinguish good from evil.", Wenbin said at a press conference.

“The Chinese government has not invited ministers or officials from the British government” to the Games, said a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London, informa Reuters.

China has repeatedly denied accusations of abuses in the Xinjiang region and called the accusations against it “fabrications.”. The Biden Administration considers Chinese authorities guilty of genocide against the Muslim minority in Xinjiang.

Australia-China ties, your main business partner, are in crisis after Canberra banned Chinese multinational Huawei Technologies' 5G broadband network. Canberra's calls for an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19 have also irritated Chinese authorities, who responded by imposing tariffs on imports of Australian products such as barley, beef, coal and wine.

The boycott announced by the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom only concerns diplomatic representatives, Well, the athletes of these three nationalities will compete in the Games. The Australian Olympic Committee has already indicated that the decision will have no impact on the preparations of its athletes to attend the event.. “Diplomatic decisions” They are a government thing., the institution pointed out.

Germany, For its part, has left it up in the air whether his Government will join the diplomatic boycott while Russia —whose president, Vladimir Putin, has been invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Games— has called for sports and politics not to be mixed.

Japan is also analyzing the possibility of not sending members of its Cabinet to the Games according to government sources cited by the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.. New Zealand announced on Tuesday that it will not send any diplomatic representation to the Games either., although he justified his decision for health safety reasons as a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic..

The Winter Games will begin about six months after the summer games, which were held in Tokyo a year late due to the covid-19 pandemic. “We always ask for the greatest possible respect and the least interference from the political world”, Juan Antonio Samaranch declared for his part, who heads the coordination panel of the International Olympic Committee for the Beijing event. “We respect the decisions made by political organizations”, he added.

The American diplomatic boycott, encouraged for months by some members of that country's Congress and human rights groups, has been decided despite an effort to improve ties between the two nations that crystallized in a video conference last month between President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi. The United States plans to host the Summer Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles (California) and is preparing to present his candidacy for the winter of 2030 a Salt Lake City (Utah).

If other countries do not join the boycott, it would undermine the message that China's human rights abuses are unacceptable, warned Bonnie Glaser, China expert from the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank at a US Congressional hearing on Tuesday. “The only option we really have is to try to get them to join us in this coalition”, this expert assured.

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