A little more than 40 days before the Beijing Winter Olympics, relations with the top Chinese sports leaders are increasingly tense. The Games that will kick off on February 4th are facing a diplomatic boycott of imposing dimensions.
Japan will not send any government delegations to the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled for next February. The chief cabinet secretary and government spokesman, Hirozaku Matsuno, announced today. The decision aligns Japan with the diplomatic boycott initiative of the sporting event announced this month by the United States and several other countries allies. According to reports from Matsuno, the Japanese delegation to the event will be led by the parliamentarian Seiko Hashimoto, president of the organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The prime minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, had already announced on December 16 that he would not traveled to Beijing on the occasion of the Winter Olympics.
The United States made official in recent days the decision not to send an official delegation to the Winter Olympics scheduled for February 2022 in China. This was announced by the spokesman of the White House, Jen Psaki, denouncing the “crimes against humanity” committed in the Xinjiang region and “other violations of human rights”. The decision, Psaki specified, does not involve the withdrawal of the athletes: the intention was to send “a clear signal” to Beijing, but “we did not think it was the right choice, to penalize the athletes who trained and prepared for this appointment “, he specified. Last month, US President Joe Biden spoke of the diplomatic boycott as “a measure we are considering” in response to human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and Chinese military pressure on Taiwan. The diplomatic boycott has been the subject of discussion by the National Security Council of the White House, from which no official confirmation has yet been received.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (CIO), Thomas Bach, commented in recent days on the diplomatic boycott initiatives of the Beijing Winter Olympics decreed by the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Lithuania and Australia, among others, and the case of the tennis player Chinese Peng Shuai, who disappeared from the public scene after accusing former Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli of sexual harassment. Bach said he was convinced that diplomatic boycotts will have a limited impact on the Games scheduled in Beijing next February: commenting on a report on the Tokyo Olympics last August, the official explained that “these games have been a success for the athletes,” of the world audience and Olympic values. They were the most followed Olympic Games on digital platforms, thus becoming the first real Games in streaming “. As for the Chinese tennis player Peng, Bach rejected the criticisms of the IOC for the two videoconference interviews with the athlete, apparently organized by the Chinese authorities. “We didn’t think (the athlete) was under pressure,” said the IOC president. “It is very easy to be suspicious, but our approach is to maintain this contact with her and assure her that we care about her. She appreciated both calls very much.”