There have been significant calls for the IOC to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from BeijingRussia has described a potential diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing by the United States as “nonsense”. US politicians and officials boycotting Beijing 2022 moved a step closer in June when the Senate passed a Bill that introduces a series of measures aimed at tackling Chinese foreign policy and economic influence. The US and other Western countries have criticised China for its human rights record and claimed the country is carrying out a genocide on Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. While the US could diplomatically boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Russia is set to send its President Vladimir Putin after he accepted an invitation to attend the Games from Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. “It is not the first and not the last time that we hear all this nonsense from there.”Relations strainedChina’s record on human rights – including in Tibet and Hong Kong – has come under increasing scrutiny with the Beijing 2022 Olympics on the horizon.

Source: The Nation September 21, 2021 18:45 UTC