The Joe Biden administration will stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. White House press secretary Jen Psaki made the announcement on Monday:
Jen Psaki announces that the Biden administration won't send diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympics given the PRC's "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity" pic.twitter.com/Cpsn0IZiRd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 6, 2021
The United States will not send any government officials to the Olympics in February because of China's human rights abuses. However, American athletes will still be competing. The Biden administration doesn't want to penalize those athletes, so they will still get the chance for Olympic glory.
The 2022 Winter Olympics are set to begin on Feb. 4 and run through Feb. 20. This diplomatic boycott had been expected as the United States continues to try to figure out how to grapple with its relationship with China.
There has been plenty of controversy surrounding America's relationship with China, including when it comes to the sports world. As one example besides these Olympics, the NBA views China as an important market as the league tries to continue to grow the game globally, and there was a lot of hubbub in recent years when Daryl Morey's infamous Hong Kong tweet drew backlash from China. The NBA lost a lot of money because of it.
More recently, Enes Kanter Freedom has been rampaging against China, calling out a number of people in the process. That includes LeBron James, Jeremy Lin and others.
It's certainly a complicated issue, and we'll see if this diplomatic boycott of the Olympics has any impact moving forward.
Follow Us
Subscribe