UK, Canada Announce Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing Winter Olympics 2022
Canada and the UK too have followed suit citing human rights violations in China's Xinjiang province.
New Delhi: After the US and Australia announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, Canada and the UK too have followed suit citing human rights violations in China's Xinjiang province.
BBC reports that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that no ministers will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics due to alleged human rights violations in China.
Johnson announced the boycott during Prime Minister’s Question after former Conservative leader Duncan Smith called for a “diplomatic boycott”.
British Prime Minister said that he typically did not support “sports boycotts”.
On Wednesday, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “As many (of our) partners around the world, we are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government."
“That is why we are announcing today that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games this winter," Trudeau said at a press conference.
Prime Minister Trudeau said that Canada's boycott will not “come as a surprise to China.”
"We have been very clear over the past many years of our deep concerns around human rights violations," he added.
As more countries are announcing the diplomatic boycott of the Games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said that despite an increasing number of diplomatic bans, it was pleased that athletes would still be taking part.
"The presence of government officials is a political decision for each government so the principle of IOC neutrality applies, '' Bach said.
On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had said that Australia will not be sending officials to the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
"Australia will not step back from the strong position we've had standing up for Australia's interests and obviously it is of no surprise that we wouldn't be sending Australian officials to those Games," Morrison said.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that while the US athletes will participate in the games, the administration would not send any officials to the games.
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