Canada joins diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

Author: CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS / REUTERS

Canada, after the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to protest human rights violations in China. As written CNNCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, stressing that he was “extremely concerned about the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government”.

In response, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, said that “no one cares whether he comes or not.”

“The political trick of Australian politicians seeking selfish gain will in no way affect the Olympics, which Beijing is expected to host successfully,” he said, commenting on a similar decision by Australia.

Earlier, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that due to human rights violations in China, no diplomat or other U.S. official would attend the Beijing competition.

The PRC said the US move was a “blatant political provocation” and “a grave insult to 1.4 billion Chinese,” and China’s Foreign Ministry said US politicians were not invited to the Olympics winter.

The Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing from February 4 to 20. According to preliminary estimates, 2.9 thousand athletes will need to undergo a full vaccination or undergo a 21-day quarantine upon arrival. In addition, all contest participants will be checked daily for the coronavirus.

Countries are declaring diplomatic boycotts over reports that more than one million Uyghurs, most of them Muslims, are being held in special re-education centers in Xinjiang. Some former detainees claim to have been tortured, raped or forcibly sterilized. Beijing denies the charges, saying the camps are re-education centers designed to fight separatism and Islamist terrorism.