Australia joins diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Games

Australia will join the United States in the diplomatic boycott of the winter Olympics in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, because other allies had a similar movement to protest Chinese human rights records.

The United States on Monday said government officials would boycott the Beijing Olympics because of Chinese human rights “cruelty”, only a few weeks after talks aimed at the tense relationship between the two superpowers. China said the US would “pay the price” because of his decision and warned “replies” in response.

Morrison said the decision was made because of the Australian struggle to reopen the diplomatic channel with China to discuss alleged violations of human rights in Xinjiang and the Beijing movement to slow down and block the import of Australian goods. Other allies are slow to commit to joining diplomatic boycott.

The UK is considering agreeing to the government’s limited presence to the February 4-20 Financial Olympics which will stop being a full diplomatic boycott, Telegraph reports on Wednesday. The direct ban on the representation of the minister and diplomatic in the winter match remains a possibility, the report said.

Japan is considering not sending cabinet members to the Beijing Winter Olympics after the United States announced the diplomatic boycott, the Sankei Shimbun Japan Daily reported on Wednesday, quoting government resources that were not named.

President Joe Biden’s administration quoted what the United States called genocide against Muslim minority in the distance of China Western Xinjiang. China denies all rights violations.

Spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Zhao Lijian on Tuesday told media direction that his country opposed US diplomatic boycott and promised “replies” in response. “The United States will pay the price for the wrong action,” he said, without giving details. “Let’s all wait and see.”

Winter games will begin around six months after the conclusion of summer games in Tokyo, which is postponed a year due to Covid-19 pandemic.

“We always ask for as much respect as possible and a little disturbance from the political world,” said Juan Antonio Samarch, Head of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Beijing Olympics. “We must reciprocate. We respect the political decisions taken by political bodies.”

The United States will host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and are preparing an offer to hold the 2030 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Asked whether China would consider the olympic diplomatic boycott in the United States, Zhao said boycott U.S. has “damaged the foundation and atmosphere of” exercise and cooperation of the Olympics. American diplomatic boycott, driven for months by several members of the Congress and US Human Rights Group, came although it was an effort to stabilize the relationship between the two largest economies in the world, with a video meeting last month between Biden and Xi Jinping.

‘The only choice’

Bonnie Glaser, a Chinese expert in the United States Marshall funds, told the US Congress audience on Tuesday that unless other countries joined the boycott would damage the message that Chinese human rights violations were not acceptable.

“Now I think the only choice available to us is trying to get as many countries as possible to stand with us in this coalition,” Glaser said.