US expected to announce diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics this week

Amid several reports of a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the United States is likely to make an announcement this week regarding the absence of Government officials, ANI reported citing sources. This is the Biden administration's plan to send a message on the world stage to China without preventing US athletes from competing. In an earlier update, it was reported that the UK had also mulled at a diplomatic boycott while adding that "no tickets have been booked" for the UK ministers to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. 

The move would allow the US to The National Security Council, which has been privately discussing the boycott, declined to comment, CNN reported. This comes after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Tuesday said that China will successfully hold the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games on schedule, despite the worldwide spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 strain. The Games are scheduled for February 4-20, 2022.

Ex-US Government officials back Diplomatic Boycott

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday, 21 November, backed calls of ‘diplomatic boycott’ of Beijing’s Winter Olympics next year. Both Democrats and Republicans have lodged a strong protest against the Olympics 2022 games in the wake of Chinese human rights abuses. It is to mention that China has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uyghurs in the camps, subjecting them to torture and forced sterilization for ethnic cleansing. Now, joining the growing call, Pompeo has also asked nations across the globe to boycott the Beijing Olympics. 

UK's statement on Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, last week, confirmed that "no tickets have been booked" for the UK ministers to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. The announcement came as a response to the question from Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Member of Parliament, co-chair of the cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), on whether the UK government would opt for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Asserting that the decision of the British Olympics Committee to decide the participation of the athletes, he noted: "As regards Government Ministers, whether they would wish to go to the People's Republic of China, I can tell the honourable gentleman that no tickets have been booked," ANI reported.

(With ANI inputs)