US announces state diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

The White House said no official delegation would be sent to the Games because of concerns about China’s human rights record.

“US diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang,” said.

“No-one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to be successfully held,” said spokesman Liu Pengyu, quoted by Reuters.

“While we must support and celebrate our athletes, America - and the world - cannot give our official imprimatur to these games or proceed as if there is nothing wrong with holding the Olympics in a country perpetrating genocide and mass human rights violations,” Ms Pelosi said.

Some US politicians, however, said they believed that the diplomatic boycott is not enough, with Senator Tom Cotton calling it a “half measure” and argued that the administration should have opted to “fully boycott” the games.