U.S. athletes will still participate in the games, but the Biden administration will not send any official representation to Beijing.
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- The U.S. on Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move that had garnered bipartisan support from critics of China’s human rights record.
- While U.S. athletes will still participate, President Joe Biden’s administration will not send any official representation to the games, given China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
- “The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games,” Psaki said.
- The move, which was expected, was preemptively criticized earlier Monday by China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. “It is a travesty of the Olympic spirit, it is political provocation, and an offense to the 1.4 billion Chinese people,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks.
SOURCE: CNBC
Political | Process 
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