Biden And The Invisible Boycott Of The Beijing Olympics Cold War? No, Only A Bust.

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Written by Piero Messina

The US administration has just invented a new weapon of diplomatic pressure: the invisible boycott. Probably some White House spin doctors have thought: boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics is a nice diplomatic move, like a cold war. The snow of the ski slopes, the ice of the sports halls: what could be better to bring to mind the climate of the Cold war?

Thus, worldwide, American President Joe Biden entrusted his spokesperson, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, with the statement to explain that the Usa administration will not send any diplomat or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic games, citing “genocide” and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and “other human rights abuses.”

White House, therefore, has thus announced the boycott, but only diplomatic, of the sporting event next February in Beijing. Therefore, no participation ban was imposed on the stars and stripes sports delegation. If Biden was thinking of returning to the climate in the eighties, when the United States and a substantial number of its allies did not participate in the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, he has made the classic hole in the water.

Maybe Sleepy Joe has forgotten the rule that unites show business and the world of sport (less and less competition and more and more entertainment): the show must go on.

And the show will go on, because the threat not to send some representatives of US diplomacy to the Beijing Olympic Games will have no concrete effect on the value of the competition.

Some effect, on the other hand, is already being recorded on the diplomatic relations front. The smiles of last November’s virtual summit between Biden and Xi Jinping are already part of history. Joe Biden chose via dello rudeness. Beijing’s response was not long in coming. For the Chinese government, the US diplomatic boycott “is a political farce and an attempt to politicize sport”. Beijing, to remain anchored to the sporting language, throws a knockout blow against the American leaders, recalling that the Olympics are “the gathering for athletes and winter sports enthusiasts from all over the world. They are the success of the Games, not the presence of a handful of government officials of the countries ”.

The US will pay for their decision – underlines the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian – “The attempt to interfere with the Winter Olympics for ideological prejudice, based on lies and rumors is a violation of political neutrality in sport. They should stop. to politicize sport and to interfere with words and actions against the Beijing Olympics, otherwise they will undermine the dialogue and cooperation between the two countries in a number of important international and regional areas and issues “.

Another opinion is that of the spokesman of the diplomatic representation, Liu Pengyu, who writes on Twitter: “The politicians who appeal to the boycott of Beijing 2022 are doing it for their own political interests. In reality, no one will care if these people will come or not and not there. they will have repercussions for the success of the Games “. Finally, Beijing made known that in reality no diplomatic representation had been invited.

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