China on Wednesday strongly responded to Australia’s announcement of a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, saying that it never planned to invite Australian officials and “nobody cares” whether they come or not.
China, however, has lodged stern representations with Australia over the decision, announced a day after a similar decision taken by the US, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Australian Prime Minister Scott announced the “diplomatic boycott” in Canberra on Wednesday.
It was in response to “human rights abuses” carried out in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region and “many other issues that Australia has consistently raised”.
Australian athletes would however attend the Games to be held in February, he said.
In Beijing foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reacted sharply. “China has reiterated many times that the winter Olympics is not a stage for political posturing and manipulation,” Wang said in Beijing.
“China never planned to invite any Australian officials to the games. Whether they come or not nobody cares,” he said. “It exposes fully that the Australian government has been so blindly following certain country’s steps that it doesn’t tell right from wrong, and has no bottom line,” Wang said without directly referring to the US decision on diplomatic boycott.
A Chinese official media report quoted Wang as saying that China had “lodged strong representations” to Australia on the decision. “Australia’s move to connect the Winter Olympics with the so-called human rights issue in Xinjiang is a serious violation of the principle of political neutrality of sports enshrined in the Olympic Charter and also against the Olympic Motto of ‘together’,” Wang was quoted as saying.
China on Tuesday accused the US of violating the Olympic spirit by announcing a diplomatic boycott of February’s Beijing Winter Games, warning Washington that it will “pay for its practices”, in a new diplomatic feud that’s certain to further strain ties already at the lowest point in decades.
On Monday, the White House said government officials would boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, although American athletes are free to compete at the Games, scheduled to begin on February 4.
The White House had called China’s human rights record “egregious”.
“US diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC’s egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can’t do that,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told a daily press briefing.