Australia Joins U.S. In Diplomatic Boycott Of Beijing Olympics

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the Country will join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns.

As it did following the U.S. announcement on Tuesday, China responded furiously, saying no Australian officials had been invited to the Olympics and that no one would care about whether they come or not.

Morrison’s announcement follows a decision Monday by the Biden administration to not send an official US delegation to the Games — the first country to confirm a diplomatic boycott.

Morrison said it should come as no surprise that Australian officials would boycott the event after the nation’s relationship with China had broken down in recent years but said Australian athletes would still be able to compete.

As well as citing human rights abuses, Morrison said China had been very critical of Australia’s efforts to have a strong defense force in the region, “particularly in relation, most recently, to our decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.”

For months, activists have called for a boycott of the Games over human rights abuses by the Chinese government in Xinjiang and Tibet and its political crackdown in Hong Kong.

Beijing has been accused by the US and other Western nations of imprisoning more than a million Muslim-majority Uyghurs in detention centers in Xinjiang, where some former detainees claim they were tortured, raped or forcibly sterilized.

Beijing denies the allegations, saying the camps are reeducation centers designed to fight separatism and Islamist terrorism in the far western region.

On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy in Australia criticized Canberra’s decision to boycott the Games and said it would not improve already chilly relations between the two countries.

While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in January that awarding a country the Games did not mean it endorsed their “human rights standards,” activists said giving the high-profile event to China added legitimacy to the actions of the ruling Communist Party.