All ‘Five Eyes’ countries boycott the Beijing Olympics… China’s ‘groan’ with no alternative

Following the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, all of the “Five Eyes” countries of the British-American intelligence alliance have all declared diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Winter Olympics. With only 50 days before the Olympics, China is in a difficult position.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the 8th (local time) that “many partners around the world are extremely concerned about the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government”. Reuters reported that.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also attended Parliament on the same day and announced that there would be a de facto diplomatic boycott in which ministers and government officials would not attend the Olympics. The boycott has been formalized not to be sent.

New Zealand announced on the 7th that it would not send a government delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics for various safety reasons, including COVID-19.

Two days after the United States formalized the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics on the 6th, all of the Five Eyes countries allied with the Anglo-American region joined the boycott.

China is strongly opposed to a series of boycotts by its US allies. The Chinese embassy in Canada said in a statement in the name of a spokesperson on the same day, “The Canadian Prime Minister has publicly denounced China’s human rights violations and, on the pretext of this, expressed resolute opposition to the declaration that it will not send a diplomatic delegation to the Olympics and has initiated strict negotiations.” said. “Any attempts by Western countries to prevent the Olympic Games from proceeding smoothly based on rumors from ideological prejudices in concert with each other will inevitably fail,” he said. The Chinese embassy in the UK also urged the British government to abide by the Olympic spirit and stop political manipulation.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has announced that it will resolutely counter the US diplomatic boycott, is also continuing to warn against each country’s boycott movement. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Won-bin (汪文斌) said at a regular briefing the day before that Australia and other countries are blindly following the United States and that “we will pay a price for our wrongdoing.”

What China is concerned about is the re-emergence of human rights issues raised by Western countries as the cause of boycotts after the Olympics, rather than whether overseas delegations will attend the Olympics itself. As if conscious of this, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory letter to the ‘2021 South-South Human Rights Forum’ the day before, saying, “There are many ways to practice human rights, and people around the world have the freedom to choose the path of human rights development that suits their own circumstances.” emphasized.