JAKARTA - China's involvement of Uighur athletes to carry the torch for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics does not distract from the human rights abuses, genocide perpetrated against Uighurs, said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
A 20-year-old cross-country skier born in Xinjiang, Dinigeer Yilamujiang, along with other Chinese athletes lit an Olympic cauldron on Friday, during the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
"We can't allow this to be a distraction from human rights abuses, the genocide we're seeing in parts of China," Psaki told a news conference.
"That's why we don't send diplomatic delegations even when we support our US athletes," Psaki continued.
Psaki was also asked about comments last week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who urged US Olympic athletes to focus on competition and not risk angering the Chinese government by talking about human rights abuses.
"All athletes have the right to express themselves freely and that's what happened at the Beijing Olympics, it happens everywhere," Psaki said in response.
The United States and other Western countries have imposed a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over China's treatment of Uighur Muslims and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region.
For information, UN researchers and human rights activists estimate that more than one million Muslims have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region of western China.
The Chinese government denies the accusations. Meanwhile, China rejected allegations of abuse, described the camps as vocational centers designed to combat extremism, and in late 2019 said everyone in the camps had "graduated".
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