US boycott of Beijing Olympics is Biden administration's 'minimal option': Ex-diplomat

The United States President Joe Biden administration opted for a “minimal option” that was available for them amid growing pressure it faced to boycott the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, told a retired diplomat and China relations expert, Chas Freeman, to Sputnik. On Monday, the Biden administration confirmed that no US government officials will be attending the sporting event in China in February. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, while making the announcement said that the decision was taken after considering the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, and other human rights abuses.” She further added, “The athletes on Team USA have our full support.” Freeman told the Russian news agency that, “Given pressure to boycott the Olympics to protest all sorts of causes, this is the minimal option.”

It is also pertinent to note that freeman was former US President Richard Nixon’s translator during his 1972 visit to the Chinese capital of Beijing that established the modern US-China ties. According to the ex-US diplomat, the US boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games would not impact the US athletes who would continue to take part in the event. He told Sputnik, “The athletes will be able to compete. They don't and won't care who is in the stands. China never intended, given COVID-19 and political issues, to invite US officials to attend in any event.”

‘If wise, China will brush this off’: Freeman

Freeman noted that China would not allow the petty slight to escalate unnecessarily into another significant clash between both nations. He said, “If China is wise, it will brush this off as a petty move that does not require a response.” However, China has criticised the United States move. In a statement to the news agency, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu said that America’s diplomatic boycott was a “political manipulation” as well as a grave distortion of the spirit of the Olympic Charter. 

Liu also added that it would have no impact on the success of the Games. Dispatching high-level delegations to each Olympics has been a long-standing tradition among the United States as well as other leading nations. Then-US President George W Bush had even attended the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games. US First Lady Jill Biden had led the delegation to Summer Olympics in Tokyo that took place earlier this year while Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff led a delegation to the Paralympic Games. 

(IMAGE: AP)