After months of deliberation, the White House has decided not to send government officials to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over China's human rights "atrocities" — leaving Japan to weigh whether to follow suit and risk angering its neighbor and top trading partner.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a news conference in Washington on Monday.
Psaki said that going ahead with U.S. diplomatic or official representation would effectively treat the Beijing Games, which are due to start on Feb. 4, “as business as usual” despite China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities" in its far-west Xinjiang region.