American athletes will still be able to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, but no U.S. delegation will attend, in an effort to call out China\u2019s human rights abuses against Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.<\/b>
\nNo U.S. government officials will attend the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in an effort by the Biden administration to call attention to China\u2019s human-rights abuses against Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced the boycott on Monday, explaining that while American athletes would still be able to compete in the Games, there would be no diplomatic delegation of U.S. officials accompanying them. \u201cThe Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic games given the PRC\u2019s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human-rights abuses,\u201d Psaki said, explaining that the U.S. government \u201cwill not be contributing to the fanfare of the games,\u201d and that the White House feels the boycott \u201csends a clear message.\u201d U.S. Olympic officials had opposed any attempt the idea of preventing American athletes from going to the Games, which some China hawks, like GOP senator Tom Cotton, had been calling for as well. \u201cI don\u2019t think we felt it was the right step to penalize athletes who have been training, preparing for this moment,\u201d Psaki said Monday. In addition to China\u2019s persecution of the Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities, calls for a boycott had also been fueled by China\u2019s crackdown on the democracy advocates in Hong Kong, as well as the plight of Peng Shuai, a top women\u2019s tennis player in China who wasn\u2019t seen publicly for weeks after she accused a top former government official of sexual assault. The Biden administration has made it clear in recent weeks that it was considering the largely symbolic boycott, and the spokesman for China\u2019s foreign ministry had vowed the Chinese government would \u201ctake resolute countermeasures\u201d if the U.S. went through with it \u2014 though it\u2019s not clear what those would actually be. \u201cThis wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation,\u201d foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in response to the move on Monday, additionally claiming that the Games \u201cis not a stage for political posturing and manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n