The United States Is Worried About Boycotting The 2022 Beijing Olympics

JAKARTA - President Joe Biden's government has not yet decided whether the United States is ready to boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics or not, when pressure on the government increases, in protest of China's behavior in Xinjiang and the corona virus.

This statement was made by the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday, February 25 local time, when asked about President Joe Biden's attitude.

"No final decision has yet been made on that, and of course we will seek guidance from the US Olympic Committee," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told CNBC.

This implies an uneasy policy from the United States, after earlier this month, Psaki signaled that Uncle Sam's country would not change its plans to participate in the four-yearly Winter Olympics.

"At the moment we are not talking about changing our posture or our plans regarding the Beijing Olympics," he said on February 3.

Meanwhile, US Olympic and Paralympic Committee spokesman Jon Mason said in a statement that it was against the boycott as it has proven to negatively affect athletes while not effectively addressing global issues.

"We believe more effective action is for world governments and China to become directly involved in human rights and geopolitical issues," Mason's statement said.

To note, the pressure for Joe Biden's Government to boycott the Beijing Olympics which will be held on February 4, 2022, or pressure for the International Olympic Committee to move its location from China, cannot be separated from China's treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang who are considered genocide.

Critics at home have also pointed to records about the Corona Virus pandemic, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China which has killed 506,500 people in the United States and 2.5 million worldwide.

"To see the American flag and see American athletes in Beijing celebrating what is the worst of the worst authoritarian regime right now, I can't imagine it," Republican Mike Waltz of Florida told Fox News after introducing a resolution aimed at withdrawing the 2022 Olympics from China. .

A group of Republican senators submitted a similar resolution in early February, and rights advocacy groups have attacked the IOC for failing to confront Beijing's human rights abuses.

In a Fox News op-ed Thursday morning, former United Nations Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, said China today is clearly more dangerous than Nazi Germany in 1936.

The US participated in that year's Summer Olympics in Berlin, but Haley argued the US would boycott the games if it knew what Nazi Germany would become.

“President Biden must make a boycott decision. It shouldn't be difficult, "wrote Haley.