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© 2021 AFPBiden considering diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics
By Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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59 Comments
GdTokyo
Not just diplomats, don’t send athletes, don’t send ANYONE.
Show the dictators of Beijing that they cannot bask in a global spotlight while imprisoning millions of ethnic minorities. They cannot have a free ride on Taiwan and no, they are not part of the club of grownups.
And show the un-elected quasi state known as the IOC, that the “Olympic movement” can’t keep awarding the games to dictators and thugs.
GdTokyo
This is Berlin in 1936 all over again. On this point, I’m with the conservatives. Boycott the hegemony games. And if China boycotted LA in 28, fine. Won’t miss them and don’t care.
Hiro
What is a diplomatic boycott even gonna accomplish? Is basically saying 'we are just putting up a show'. They should pull out all US athletes if they truly are serious about it. This is just being a hypocrite.
ulysses
A diplomatic boycott is not enough, a full boycott by democratic countries is required.
The Peng Shuai case also should be a wake up call, the CCP exploits the weak and minorities without any repercussions , they need to suffer the consequences!!!
There is a genocide going on in China and it’s high time the world woke up to it!!!
Tom Doley
Boycott the Beijing games. The CCP are lecherous animals. This will be my second boycott after the 2021 games.
Fighto!
Biden and the US should lead the way and refuse to officially send a team. If rebel athletes choose to go, they can march under the disgraced IOC flag. And forever have the shame on their reputation.
Other democratic nations should follow suit. Any athlete who takes part is a collaborator with Communust China and the worst genocide committed since Nazi Germany.
Boycott the Genocide Games 2022.
lincolnman
Go way back? Best Buds? Links? OK....
“One of the many great things about our just signed giant Trade Deal with China is that it will bring both the USA & China closer together in so many other ways. Terrific working with President Xi, a man who truly loves his country.
“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
“Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days … Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation.
“I think they've handled it professionally and I think they're extremely capable and I think President Xi is extremely capable and I hope that it's going to be resolved."
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/trump-china-coronavirus-188736
“He’s now president for life, president for life. And he’s great,” “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday,”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-china-idUSKCN1GG015
Jimizo
I haven’t heard so much gush in my life.
It’s almost like a schoolgirl crush.
Jimizo
What Lincolnman posted was closer to adoration.
Surely that level of adoration for an autocrat repels you.
bass4funk
Don’t like this President, but I would definitely applaud and support him if he did this move. China doesn’t deserve this, everyone should boycott them especially what they have done and never taken responsibility for this virus and a list of other things.
I agree.
noriahojanen
Don't even need to consider a diplomatic boycott. The virus resurge will ruin the Games.
J @Tokyo
After years of Western "cancel culture" taking down everything from comedians, to business people, athletes to historical figures one has to ask... how on earth does global cancel culture not take aim at the Chinese Communist Party. It has committed eggregious crimes against humanity including mainly its own citizens, but it also is a group of homogenous Han Chinese men with virtually no real authority in the hands of China's women or its many minority groups. It's simply disgusting and hypocritical that the world of woke, cancel culture internet ethusiasts decides to give these people a "pass". Even more mind-boggling to me is that the Western companies that kowtow to the CCP in order to do business in China also are getting a pass. The irony is that these companies are some of the most outspoken and progressive on western issues such as Black Lives Matter and liberal American politics: (I'm looking at you Nike, Apple, Google, Airbnb all Beijing 2022 Olympic sponsors and many more), but these companies have absolutely nothing to say on the human rights violations committed by the CCP. Simply hypocritical, shameful and disgusting.
Fighto!
Not true. After the 1960 games, South Africa did not compete in any Olympics until 1992. Threats of boycott were made from other nations if they were invited, and eventually they were formally expelled from the Olympic movement in 1970.
Boycotts do work. They send a message. Let China have their games with North Korea, Russia, Cuba and other pariah states.
Boycott the Genocide Games 2022.
lincolnman
Will be interesting seeing no US government officials in the stands but sitting next to Xi his long-time US business partner and former reality TV host - both wearing Chinese-made Trump Collection shirts and ties, and sitting with his daughter wearing her Chinese-made Ivanka line shoes...all no doubt cheering the Chinese and Russian athletes....
Fighto!
And on that view, you would also have permitted apartheid South Africa to participate in the Olympics and international sport. The Berlin Olympics '36 and all its propoganda would also have been justified, eh?
Boycotts send a strong message - and they do work. Weak "Diplomatic boycotts", such as Biden not attending, won't bother the CCP one bit.
stormcrow
They should completely ban them. China is a menace regarding so many issues, especially when it comes to human rights, Hong Kong, the Uyghur people, violent threats to Taiwan and now their missing tennis star Peng Shuai. This is so blindingly awful.
Instead, the Free World should have something akin to the Olympics called the Freedom Games somewhere in the EU or US. Let Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, etc., go to China. It would be an Olympic Games in name only. At the same time, to go to China now and attend their Olympic games is to ignore and condone the abuses its committing.
Desert Tortoise
The largest US corporate PACS are those of Honeywell, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, AT&T and COMCAST. Tech company PACS are not even close to spending as much as the largest PACs mentioned. They are not big players in terms of political donations.
Pukey2
When we have the Paris Olympics, can we boycott that too because of France's colonial exploits which continue. The hatred I've seen in Nouvelle-Calédonie. The state they left SE Asia and Africa in. The racism directed at Muslims and Chinese. Then can we boycott the LA Olympics - the white supremacy, systematic racism toward Blacks, the non-stop anti-Asian abuse and rhetoric, the continual poverty of Native Americans, invasions of countries abroad like Hawaii where cultural genocide occurred and where non-Hawaiians were imported en-masse, and the wars launched by America based on lies. WMD anyone?
Desert Tortoise
The Delta variant is making a mockery of China's pandemic control efforts. They are not being successful in controlling the spread. The Chinese need to change their approach but the nature of the CCP is to double down rather than change course when things don' work as planned. I will tell you something. Early in the pandemic when Chinese cities were locked down hard a sister in law left Shanghai by car, drove to another city, visited family there and drove back. Chinese cities are huge and porous. There are many thousands of ways into and out of a big Chinese city and their police cannot be everywhere. Their lock downs are not working. They can't. Just to easy to get around them.
lincolnman
Dems didn't say 'Terrific working with President Xi!"...Trump did - you agree? Yes or no...
No, it's upsetting to Americans that Trump "thanked President Xi on behalf of the American people" for spreading the virus....why did he do that?
You agree with Trump - Xi "is great" for declaring himself dictator for life? Yes or no...
Hito Bito
It's not going to happen...Biden right now is already in the middle of also "considering a rollback of Trump's tariffs on China" because of...absolutely no change from Beijing.
This guy only knows how to take a knee, folks. Like his Veep recently bleated in her fake French accent: "this president..."Mon ami! He's a what you Europeans call...a Surrender Monkey!"
But I'll admit that if he actually were to find some semblance of a spine in all that jelly of his, and pulled a Jimmy Carter on the Chinese (seeing that nobody but the Chinese are allowed in to see the thing to begin with)? I'd eat my crow, and admit I was wrong...this guy can actually get up out of a prone position for something once every century or so...
Desert Tortoise
Nike donates about 3 times more money to Republican candidates than to Democrats. Apple does not make political donations and their corporate policy is that PACs should not even be permitted. Google gives more to Republican causes than to Democratic causes. Typically the tech giant's PACs donations are very far from their employees own political donations reflecting a more conservative top management at these companies. Data, not hyperbole.
Desert Tortoise
Interesting to see the right complain about people having morals and a conscience and being willing to act on those convictions. When did caring about others and about justice become a bad thing?
NOMINATION
Try to reword with a more innocent approach lol
quercetum
China deals with the pandemic vastly better than most countries. It may have started in China, but once the CPC figured out what was going on they are credited with giving everyone a heads up and ringing the alarm bell loudly and clearly. Then they locked themselves down to prevent it causing further damage. The U.S. on the other hand is the spreader of all nations. The numbers speak for themselves. Trump dropped the ball.
This makes sense. If the athletes were forced to follow Biden, it would be authoritarian like the Chinese. The athletes should be free to choose.
Biden is in a tough situation. They need a trillion of so to flow go into China. The prices are going to keep going up. Biden needs Xi's help.
China deals with terroism much bettern than most countries. They arrest individuals and attempt to educate them rather than go to war. Pick your poison: being detained versus being bombed. The latter is much worse and is the real genocide.
ulysses
If you mean arresting anyone who reports facts that don’t match the CCP narrative, sure!
No it doesn’t, if a country decides to boycott then the athletes from that country cannot participate under its flag.
Allowing a genocide because you want to profit from it is just callous. The world can get by without Xi and they need to unite to make that happen.
>
Addfwyn
This seems like it will be ultimately ineffectual, and just an attempt to reap the material benefits from China while slandering them at the same time. Which is pretty much par for the course.
Honestly I was hoping that countries boycotted the Olympics with more teeth behind them, just to maybe finally get places to start thinking twice about hosting them. The fact that Japan's didn't get cancelled though means they probably never would. If a worldwide pandemic isn't enough to stop them, I don't know what would be.
I realise you mean this as a negative light, but an alternative Olympic hosted by these countries sounds like a great way to get away from the IOC. I can't imagine the capitalists going along with it for a second. Though Russia seems an odd inclusion certainly, kind of the polar opposite of the rest.
Desert Tortoise
Blacklabel, Xi has changed a lot over the years. He lived with a farmer in Muscatine Iowa when he was a lower level official studying US agriculture. He apparently speaks reasonably understandable English and was well thought of at the time. In China he was pretty much a nothing, a no name. If you mentioned Xi Jinping you would get a blank stare. Only if you said he was Peng Liyuan's husband would someone in China say "oh yeah, him". (Xi's second wife Peng Liyan is a famous singer in China). It surprised a lot of people when he ascended to General Secretary of the CCP and President of China. He stepped over a lot of more senior and seemingly more powerful party members and was seen as kind of a compromise candidate between two other competing factions within the CCP. Neither faction had enough power to prevail in the competition for the highest posts but Xi was seen as sort of a placeholder everyone could agree on. Nobody really expected him to come out as a hard nosed Maoist revanchist. And by that I mean people both outside and inside China didn't see it coming. When Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao was General Secretary of the CCP and President of China, there were experiments with competitive elections of local officials and even a big debate in the Peoples Congress about allowing private land ownership to attract business investment. All of that changed when Xi came to power.
Desert Tortoise
Are you sure about that?
https://nypost.com/2021/11/16/white-house-re-affirms-xi-jinping-not-bidens-old-friend/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-insists-biden-xi-friends-monday-meeting/story?id=81211812
https://www.newsnpr.org/white-house-says-biden-xi-jinping-is-not-an-old-friend/
This last one explains what Xi actually said in Mandarin, and it is not really "old friend".
https://news.yahoo.com/old-friends-xi-biden-not-041052174.html
noriahojanen
Why not relocating the venue to Nagano in Japan or Salt Lake City? At least these places will be safer for athletes amid the pandemic.
China's zero corona approach will lead to zero Olympics.
quercetum
No because the US isn't losing to France in steel, cars, solar panels, EV's, wind turbines, cotton, tobacco and many other industries. The US does not manufacture enough and borrows money. France is not the rising challenger to the declining hegemon.
Alex
Hmm, interesting. But then we boycott those athletes that chose to participate! "Excellent!" (c) Mr. Burns
quercetum
When China was chosen to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, the decision was predictably controversial. There were calls for boycotts of the opening ceremony by many international actors, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and an assortment of political figures. Institutions such as the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom argued that boycotting the games would bring critical attention to China’s troubled human rights record, which would ultimately provoke Beijing to alter its controversial policies. In the end, the Games were carried out and China carries on. The west has an economic arsenal at its disposal but the economies are so tied together, the costs are too high.
Uyghur separatists have resorted to violence in the name of independence since the 1960s. In response, the UN and the US have joined China in labeling the Uyghurs’ East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist organization. As the 2008 Summer Olympics approached, separatist groups seized upon the increased international attention, staging protests, riots, and demonstrations, both internationally and within China. Fast foward a decade and a half later, as China overtakes Japan as the second largest economy in the world and its growth at three times the pace as the US, the narrative changes. The Games will go on in 2022 and the narratives will change again. It already has shifted to Taiwan.
venze
Biden considering diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics:
How fraudulent can this be.
While having a supposedly 'friendly' dialogue with Xi, Biden is still mulling to boycott Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
How paradoxical. What is he actually up to..?
Gaijinjland
I don't think a boycott would accomplish anything and it's not really fair to the athletes because many of them won't get another shot at competing.
Alfie Noakes
What? South Africa was allowed to compete in the Olympics and the Nazis got their propoganda Olympics because Averill Harriman, the American head of the IOC at that time, was a Nazi sympathiser.
It's heartening to see all those who demanded politics be kept out of sport when players began taking a knee are lining up to demand politics be kept out of Beijing 2022.
Desert Tortoise
Seems like a reasonable compromise. The athletes who have trained so hard for years hoping to compete in this Olympics get to have their day in the sun. They should not be punished. A diplomatic boycott gets the message across to the Chinese in a very blunt way. It will be a huge loss of face for them. I suspect that more nations will join the US in snubbing them.
Ricky Kaminski13
H@Tokyo hear here! The confusion of the woke left is on display when real dictators and thugs need dealing with. Reality turns out to be harder to deal with than their beloved activism. I’m sure Biden and Truedough are terrifying to the Xis and Putins of the world. A diplomatic boycott ay! Tough guys.
NOMINATION
It has to be a full boycott. If Biden doesn't go and athletes do, China will still get their money from the U.S. networks and sponsors.
Attilathehungry
Howzabout we take ALL the politics and BS out of the Olympics by having them take place in a permanent location. Like, you know, Greece for the summer games? And Switzerland for winter? Problems solved.
The only downside is that all the grifters and scumbags who get rich peddling sponsorships and influence in the IOC would be out of work. If that really IS a downside...
RichardPearce
Just remember how few other countries there are willing and able to host future Olympics, and how easily an Olympics host can create a 'diplomatic blockade' against American politicians trying to attend them, before you cheer too loudly for a Sinophobic gesture like this.
Aneed Moorehead
I think many of these comments are caught up on the diplomatic boycott "not really doing anything," but I think the purpose of it is not an actual outcome but instead the clear intent to give off a very obvious message and strong position on the situation.
(Don't involve athletes in political matters. It doesn't do anyone any good. Now, if athletes voluntarily wish not to participate because they want to practice their political beliefs, then by all means go for it and they shouldn't be penalized.)
As a prominent global leader, I think it is only appropriate to do it this way. Also, as an encouragement to other nations to follow.
bass4funk
Xi seemed excited to see Biden, why Biden can’t be honest about their relationship?
So the virus wasn’t started in China. .
Ok, so what are Biden’s land to safeguard the nation and thwart China from invading Taiwan? Seems like Biden just sat there and allowed Xi his old friend to bash him.
Alex
So much huff and puff.. Biden won't do nothing, him and Xi are friends, remember? So let him play tough on camera.
Danielsan
Let Biden boycott and stay home , but don't let him stop athletes from participating.
bass4funk
No, he’s still contemplating and that’s not even the tip of things Biden never brought up to with Xi.
Blacklabel
didnt "claim" anything. that is what Xi said and Biden happily accepted with no pushback or correction.
RegBilk
lincolnmanToday 11:07 am JST
Yeah, thanks for the links, but I don't see either of them calling the other Old Friend.
With Joe on the other hand we got Pres. Xi calling him an Old Friend. Is that false.
BlacklabelToday 12:27 pm JST
The Democrats are trying to spin what is so blatantly public knowledge.
Can't unring a bell!
bass4funk
No one cleaned anything, Xi claimed he and Biden are old friends.
bass4funk
Not me, Biden should think harder
That’s not what he said. Quite the opposite.
I didn’t, nice try. So Biden is going to do the exact same thing that Obama did and that is capitulate to both China and Russia, yeah, not surprised…
RegBilk
JimizoToday 12:47 pm JST
It's actually admiration for the power the guy obtained; not for the guy. It's how strong leaders talk, by throwing out first a compliment for an admirable quality, because its purpose is to actually let the speaker take the upper ground and set the tone for who is the Alpha dog.
Biden doesn't have that inherent strength. So Xi is taking the initiative and putting Biden in his place as the dog with his tail between his legs.
Thanks for the quotes Lincoln--it really shows the difference in how China perceives our presidents.
An example from this article shows what a puppy dog does when he feels inferior:
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration would soon announce a diplomatic boycott, meaning that while athletes would still compete, government representatives would not be in the stands.
White House officials said that the issue was not raised during the Biden-Xi virtual summit.
FizzBit
Very very soft news choice for Biden's crumbling popularity and MAJOR problems with his leadership. But not surprising. Funny compared to the other guys constant negative posts. But the facade must go on.
RegBilk
I have to give Biden credit where it is due.
If there is one thing he is proficient at, it is "considering"--and stopping at that.
He is the Great Considerer.
zichiToday 10:49 am JST
It isn't a claim. Xi even referred to Joe as that. And they go way back, even to when Joe was VP. Come on--let's see some links and research.