[ad_1]
The Biden administration said Monday it would not send an official United States delegation to the Beijing Winter Games as a statement against China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.” US athletes will still be allowed to compete in the Games.
“US politicians keep hyping a ‘diplomatic boycott’ without even being invited to the Games. This wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a news conference Monday local time.
Zhao called the boycott “a grave travesty of the spirit of the Olympic charter” and “a serious insult to 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
“The US should stop politicizing sports and hyping up the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ so as not to affect China-US dialogue and cooperation in important areas,” he said.
While the meeting yielded no significant breakthroughs, it allowed for a return to a more constructive, stable relationship, following a near total breakdown during the final year of the Trump administration and continued hostility into the Biden administration.
Beijing has offered no clue as to what countermeasures it is considering, but the possibility of further retaliation now threatens to once again derail bilateral relations.
Compared to the angry response of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, some Chinese diplomats and state media employees have offered a more nonchalant take on Twitter — which is blocked in China — stressing US politicians had not yet been invited to the Games.
[ad_2]
Source : cnn
