A US-stoked diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing is "a senseless desecration of the sacred Olympic spirit" that would harm athletes, Liu Mingche, counsellor of the Chinese Embassy to Russia said on Tuesday.
"The so-called boycott [of the Olympics by the US] damages the interests of athletes and fans of winter sports, and it is a senseless desecration of the sacred Olympic spirit," he stressed.
The diplomat castigated Washington’s attempts "to advocate a diplomatic boycott" of the Olympic Games as futile, noting that Beijing has repeatedly emphasized that politics and sports don’t mix. "China has repeatedly emphasized that the Winter Olympic Games is a splendid event, first of all [it is] a sports event, not a stage for political shows or schemes," the Chinese envoy specified.
The diplomat vowed that Washington’s ploy wouldn’t affect the Olympics, nor would the scheduled events be changed. "We are confident that boycott attempts will hardly make any dent, and that any opposition that violates the true democratic spirit will not be approved," the envoy added.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the US decided to stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Olympics in China. That said, she clarified that this did not apply to the US athletes who can take part in the Games.
Calls for boycotting the Olympics in Beijing were earlier voiced by politicians from Canada, Norway and the United States as well as by representatives of about 200 human rights organizations around the globe. The reason behind the boycott demand is China’s alleged mass repressions of ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held between February 4 and 20, while the Paralympic Winter Games will be held on March 4-13.
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