The Biden administration has announced that the U.S. will not be sending government officials to the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Press secretary Jen Psaki made the announcement during her Monday press briefing.
The possibility of a diplomatic boycott was mentioned last month when President Joe Biden met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a reporter had asked Biden about a potential boycott, The New York Times reported.
At the time, Biden said it was “something we are considering.”
The question was posed after Biden met virtually with China’s Xi Jinping in an effort to cool tensions between the two countries. Xi had warned Biden against supporting Taiwan while Biden questioned alleged abuse in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong, the White House told The New York Times in November.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned China and what many call its human rights abuses, CNN reported.
The State Department and some European countries have termed the detaining and abuse of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, NBC News reported.
There also has been a push for either a diplomatic boycott or a full boycott of the Beijing Olympics, after the country’s tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared for three weeks following her allegations of sexual assault against a former member of the Chinese Communist Party.
NBC News reported she has reappeared but there are questions if she is acting on her own accord.
Athletes will still compete in the games in February, but no U.S. government representatives will be at the events. China said it would take what it called “resolute countermeasures” against the administration if the boycott happens, CNN reported.
“The U.S. should stop politicizing sports and hyping up the so-called ‘diplomatic boycott’ so as not to affect China-U.S. dialogue and cooperation in important areas,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.
Zhao further described a potential boycott as “a stain on the spirit of the Olympic charter” and a “sensationalist and politically manipulative” move, CNN reported.
Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia may also issue a diplomatic boycott of the games.
It would be the first mass Olympic boycott since 1980, when President Jimmy Carter and 60 other countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan that year, NBC News reported.