There has been an abundance of good and bad news surrounding the U.S. government’s presence – or lack thereof – in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Athletes are still competing, some even breaking world records, like American figure skater Nathan Chen, who now holds the world record score for the short program, free skate and combined score after he shattered the previous record with a score of 113.97. Others are not doing so well, as American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin slid off the course in her first outing of the games and was not able to finish her race, shocking fans across the nation but receiving an outpouring of love and support online.
Even though athletes are still competing and have been given words of support from fans and government officials alike, there has been a dark underlying tension surrounding any news about the 2022 Winter Olympics, as earlier this month the U.S. announced that there would be a diplomatic boycott of the games.
The U.S. is protesting China’s human rights violations, specifically regarding the Uyghurs population in the northwestern Xinjiang province of the country, the suppression of ongoing democratic protests in Hong Kong and the military assaults against Taiwan.
While a boycott may sound severe, U.S. athletes are still participating in the games. A diplomatic boycott is different from a total boycott in the way that while athletes are still competing, no U.S. government representatives will be attending to observe. Usually, each country sends high-ranking officials to watch the games and interact with other nation’s leaders. While this is hardly the first diplomatic boycott of the Olympic games, it may be the most effective, as news stations worldwide are providing round-the-clock coverage of the rising tensions between nations. The last diplomatic boycott the U.S. participated in was the 1980 boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow.
China has received international backlash for their treatment of the Uyghur population. Reports have surfaced in human rights groups that show evidence of the Chinese government detaining more than one million Uyghur individuals and forcing them into “re-education camps,” in addition to sentencing hundreds of thousands of other individuals to long prison sentences. Other reports show instances of forced human labor or even forced sterilization, and former camp detainees have even spoken about being tortured and assaulted.
While China adamantly refuses these allegations, this ongoing situation in addition to the violent crackdown of the Hong Kong protests and the military occupation of Taiwan have led several countries to diplomatically boycott the Winter Olympics, which were held in Beijing. The U.S. White House press secretary Jen Psaki has cited “genocide and crimes against humanity” as the reason for the boycott.
