Japanese Cabinet Secretary General Katsunobu Kato announced on Wednesday April 7 that the country is not in any negotiations with the United States on a possible boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. It is reported by “Interfax”.
On the eve of the press service of the US State Department, Ned Price, during a briefing, said that the United States, together with its foreign allies and partners, are planning to consider the idea of a boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in China. According to him, a coordinated approach will meet not only the interests of the United States, but also of its allies and partners.
On March 11, it became known that the US National Olympic Committee opposed the idea of a boycott of the Olympic Games, which will be held in Beijing in 2022.
According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the possibility of a boycott should not be ruled out, but this decision will be made after direct discussion with “friendly democracies”, that is, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Calls to boycott the Winter Games, which China is to host in 2022, have previously been voiced by Canada, Norway, and representatives of nearly 200 human rights organizations around the world. The reason was the massive repression attributed to Beijing against the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the PRC.
China, meanwhile, did not leave calls for a boycott of the Olympics unanswered. Following the resolution of the Canadian parliament, the Chinese embassy in this country called the demarche “gross interference in the internal affairs of China and a malicious provocation against 1.4 billion of its citizens.”
The XXIV Winter Olympics are to be held in Beijing from 4 to 20 February 2022. The capital of the PRC was chosen as the venue at the session of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015.