U.S. plans diplomatic boycott of Olympics; China threatens to retaliate

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) -China will take “countermeasures” in protest against a planned U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Olympics if necessary, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

The Biden administration is expected to announce on Monday that U.S. government officials will not attend the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, a source familiar with the situation said Monday, confirming earlier reports by CNN and NBC.

The diplomatic boycott, which has been encouraged https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senators-propose-adding-boycott-chinas-winter-olympics-defense-bill-2021-10-28 by some members of the U.S. Congress for weeks, would not affect American athletes.

U.S. President Joe Biden said last month that he was considering such a diplomatic boycott to protest China’s human rights record, including what Washington says is genocide against minority Muslims.

The White House and State Department declined to comment.

Those calling for a boycott are “grandstanding” and should stop “so as not to affect the dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States in important areas”, said Zhao Lijian, China’s foreign ministry spokesman.

“If the U.S. insists in wilfully clinging to its course, China will take resolute countermeasures,” he said at a news conference.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Brad Heath，Trevor Hunnicutt, Hemeyra Pamuk and Gabriel Crossley; editing by Angus MacSwan, Chizu Nomiyama, Heather Timmons and Nick Macfie)