Earlier in the day, the White House confirmed that the United States will engage in a diplomatic boycott of the event, although US athletes will be allowed to participate.
“No invitation has been extended to US politicians whatsoever, so this ‘diplomatic boycott’ simply comes out of nowhere. Such a pretentious act is only a political manipulation and a grave distortion of the spirit of the Olympic Charter. In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to be successfully held,” Liu said o Monday evening.
In November, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the Beijing Winter Olympics was a gathering of Olympic athletes and winter sports lovers, not a stage for political posturing and manipulation. Successful Olympics relied on the joint efforts of the big Winter Olympics family, not on the attendance of a handful of countries` government officials.
In 1980, the US led a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In 1980, the US led a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.