The U.S. State Department signaled Tuesday it is considering a possible joint boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics as the Chinese government continues its genocide against the Uyghur Muslims.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters the boycott “is something that we certainly wish to discuss,” adding, “A coordinated approach will not only be in our interest but also in the interest of our allies and partners.”
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Price made clear President Joe Biden’s administration has not yet made a decision. The games are slate to take place Feb. 4 to Feb. 20, 2022.
Last week, reporter Philip Wegmann noted to White House press secretary Jen Psaki that Biden said he “strongly support[ed]” Major League Baseball moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta following Georgia’s recently passed election reform bill. He went on to ask if the president likewise supports a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, given China’s ongoing human rights violations.
Psaki was very clearly agitated by Wegmann’s inquiry.
While the Chinese government has repeatedly denied it’s committing genocide against its minority Muslim population, calling such allegations “malicious lies,” both Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken as well as his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, who served under former President Donald Trump, agree China’s actions constitute genocide.
The Chinese government faced intense backlash on social media in early January when the Twitter account linked to its embassy in the U.S. claimed its “processes” have brought “gender equality” to Uyghur women by freeing them from having to become “baby-making machines.”
The “processes,” according to the Associated Press, involve the communist government routinely subjecting women to pregnancy checks, forces them to get IUDs, coerces women into abortions, and, in some instances, compels their sterilization.
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Biden has signaled he won’t take as hard of a stance against China as Trump.
“We will confront China’s economic abuses,” he said during a February address before the State Department. “But we’re also ready to work with Beijing when it’s in America’s interest to do so. We’ll compete from a position of strength by building back better at home and working with our allies and partners.”
It’s worth noting the Biden administration sanctioned two Chinese officials in late March, citing their respective roles in the “arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs.”