Communist China warned that the United States would “pay a price” after Democrat President Joe Biden announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.
“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. “The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the Games.”
“U.S. 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,” Psaki added. “As the President has told President Xi, standing up for human rights is in the DNA of Americans. We have a fundamental commitment to promoting human rights. And we feel strongly in our position, and we will continue to take actions to advance human rights in China and beyond.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded to the announcement by falsely claiming that the “U.S. is standing opposed to athletes and sports lovers across the world.”
“The Olympics are not a stage for political stances or political manipulation,” he claimed. “The U.S. will pay a price for its wrong practices.”
Zhao did not elaborate on what actions the communist nation might try to take against the U.S.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told CBS News last month that he supported a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and that U.S. athletes needed to go over there “kick their commie a**es.”
“I’ve been leaning in hard saying we ought to move the Olympics out of China, that’s what we should have done,” Cruz told “Face The Nation” host Margaret Brennan. “The IOC refused to do that. I think it’s a mistake to have a full boycott of the Olympics. You know, Jimmy Carter tried that in the 1970s. All it did was punish a generation of athletes. We’ve got young men and young women, Americans, who spent their whole lives practicing for this moment. I don’t want to punish those young athletes. What we ought to do — I do agree with the notion of a so-called diplomatic boycott — which means we don’t send high ranking cabinet officials over there.”
“But I also think it’s important we do two things at the Olympics in China,” Cruz continued. “Number one, that we actually show the courage the Women’s Tennis Association is showing to call out the murder, the genocide, the torture, the lies, the complicity in COVID-19 of the Chinese communist government, to speak the truth. And then number two, I really hope our young men and women that they go over there and kick their commie a**es. We need to win in the Olympics.”
Other Republican Senators called Biden’s diplomatic boycott a bare minimum, saying that more needed to be done:
- Bill Hagerty (TN): “”While I have called for the United States and other nations to impose a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, this is the bare minimum, and President Biden should do more to hold accountable the Chinese Communist Party. What President Biden should do is insist that the International Olympic Committee move the Olympics from Beijing. The United States should lead the world in protecting not only our own athletes, but all athletes from the malign behavior of the Chinese Communist Party as evidenced by the recent disappearance of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.”
- Nikki Haley: “A diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics is a joke…China doesn’t care if Biden and his team show up. They want our athletes.”
- Rick Scott (FL): “President Biden had the chance to actually stand up to Beijing’s genocide and human rights abuses, but again, he has chosen appeasement and weakness over strength and resolve. Time and time again, Biden does the bare minimum when it comes to dealing with China and it’s absolutely unacceptable.”
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Source: Dailywire
