Boycott of 2022 Winter Olympic games will harm global sports, says China

After US President Joe Biden said that he is weighing a US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic games due to be held in Beijing, China said that the politicization of the Olympics will harm the global sports movement in the world.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reacted following US President Joe Biden's remarks on the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Sputnik reported.

"The 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games in Beijing are the stages for athletes from all over the world, and they are the real protagonists of the upcoming Games," Zhao Lijian said.

"Any politicization of sport violates the Olympic spirit and harms the interests of athletes of all countries," the spokesman added.

Earlier in the day, US President Joe Biden has said that his administration is considering a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, reported NBC News.

Asked about the possibility of the boycott during an Oval Office meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, Biden responded that it was "something we are considering", according to NBC News.

The White House usually sends a delegation to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics but under a diplomatic boycott would not send the delegation.

The diplomatic boycott call has been advocated by top US lawmakers in the US.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called for such a boycott, a move to protest against China's abuses of human rights, said CNN.

China has been rebuked globally for the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

Early this year, the United States become the first country in the world to declare the Chinese actions in Xinjiang as "genocide".

Recently protests were also held outside the Chinese embassy in London and consulate in Manchester against China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims, demanding Beijing to close the concentration camps in Xinjiang province.

( With inputs from ANI )

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