US House Speaker Urges Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

Protest Against Human Rights Abuses of Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uyghurs
Call for Government Officials and Businesspeople to Boycott Official Delegation

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has called for a diplomatic boycott, urging that no delegation be sent to the Beijing Winter Olympics in China scheduled for early next year.

According to CNN on the 18th (local time), Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, urged a diplomatic boycott by sending only athletes to the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled for February next year.

According to foreign media, Pelosi proposed at a hearing of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission within Congress that the U.S. respect the athletes by allowing their participation in the Olympics but refrain from sending any official delegation to the opening or closing ceremonies.

The reason Pelosi raised the diplomatic boycott is to protest China's crackdown on pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong and the forced labor of Uyghurs in the western Xinjiang region. She said, "By not having national leaders go to China, we should not honor the Chinese government."

In response, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. opposed the move, stating that the U.S.'s attempt at interfering in China's internal affairs is bound to fail.

Earlier, Republican Senator Mitt Romney and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine submitted a bill to Congress prohibiting funding necessary for the U.S. to send an official delegation, citing human rights issues in China.

Additionally, British lawmakers are also urging their national team to boycott the Beijing Olympics, spreading calls for an Olympic boycott.

Foreign media reported that unlike some hardline lawmakers demanding no athletes be sent to China, Pelosi's proposal is a lower-level response, analyzed as an effort to minimize the fallout from a full Olympic boycott. Previously, the U.S. Olympic Committee expressed a negative stance on boycotting the Beijing Olympics, stating, "All past attempts to boycott the Olympics for political purposes have failed," suggesting that a full boycott including the athletes is unlikely to materialize.

There have been past cases where the U.S. diplomatically boycotted Olympics held in other countries. During the Cold War under the Jimmy Carter administration, the U.S. decided not to participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In retaliation, the Soviet Union did not send athletes to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics held in the U.S.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.