PLA Regiment Commander Carries Torch For Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, India Declares Diplomatic Boycott

Torch illustration of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. (Twitter/@Beijing2022)

JAKARTA - India on Thursday announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after a regiment commander involved in the 2020 border clash between the two countries emerged as the Olympic torchbearer in the torch relay ahead of the Games.

The boycott adds the world's most populous democracy to a list of countries that have launched their own diplomatic absence, highlighting China's human rights concerns.

"Regrettably, the Chinese side has chosen to politicize an event like the Olympics", Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a televised address, citing CNN February 4.

At the same time, he announced that the top diplomat at the Indian Embassy in Beijing would not attend the opening or closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Following the official move, Indian public broadcaster Doordarshan also announced it would not be broadcasting the opening and closing ceremonies live. It is known, India has one athlete competing this year, alpine skier Arif Khan.

The decision was prompted after pictures showed People's Liberation Army (PLA) commander Qi Fabao honored as one of about 1,200 people carrying the Olympic torch as he moved across the Olympic competition zone ahead of the lighting of the Olympic cauldron Friday night.

Chinese basketball superstar and former NBA player Yao Ming and astronaut Jing Haipeng were among other award recipients, who brought the flames with Qi on Wednesday's opening day of the relay.

Qi has been hailed as a hero in China for his role in the deadly clashes between India and China over the disputed border in the Himalayan region in 2020.

In this incident, at least 20 Indian soldiers were declared dead. Meanwhile, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) claimed the loss of four soldiers in the clashes.

The clashes broke out with soldiers on both sides using sticks, stones and bamboo spikes in the deadliest border clash between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in more than 40 years. Both sides accuse the other of having crossed the de facto boundary, the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that runs along the western sector of the Galwan Valley.

The inclusion of Qi, who suffered a head wound during the clashes, sparked a backlash in India for bringing full-blown politics between the two countries into what was meant to be a "peaceful competition" between countries.

Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin, former editor of the state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times, hit back at India's reaction, writing on Twitter about Qi's participation: "What I see from him are calls for China-India border peace and calls for world peace. What's wrong with this?"

India's move further shortens the already truncated foreign diplomatic guest list expected at the Olympics, which also marks the first time Chinese leader Xi Jinping has welcomed colleagues to China in more than a year, as China has maintained strict border controls and a zero-COVID policy.

To note, more than 20 foreign leaders are expected to attend the event, in which the major democracies will be prominently absent. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin Russia is expected to be Xi's most famous guest.

Australia, Britain and Canada are among the countries that have joined the United States' joint diplomatic boycott of this time's Olympics, pointing to alleged human rights abuses by China including those against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, which it considers Washington as genocide.