Australia joins US in boycotting the Olympic Games in Beijing

Australia joins US in boycotting the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year, which could jeopardize good relations with China.

Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, said on Tuesday it should come as no surprise that Australia will not send a delegation to the Games after being given so many “tensions” among the countries that China did not want to negotiate.

These include concerns about human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China and Beijing’s outrage over Australia’s actions. nuclear submarines.

On Monday, Jen Psaki, a press secretary at the White House, said Biden’s administration had done so. boycott Games in February due to “extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang. China called the ruling “a serious violation of the neutrality principle”.

The relationship between Canberra and Beijing is worse since Australia entered into the Aukus security agreement with the UK and US.

Human rights groups, who criticized China for its policies in Xinjiang and its ban in Hong Kong he also encouraged governments and companies around the world to boycott the Winter Olympics.

“Australia is already at home,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, adding that the boycott was part of a “decline” in Australia-China relations.

China is Australia’s largest business friend according to exports and exports, which generated more than A $ 245bn (US $ 175bn) sales last year, according to Australian government figures.

Currently, Australia is the sixth country in China to participate in higher education and provide manufacturing equipment. Last year, Beijing enacted legislation legal ban on Australian coal after Canberra helped call for an international investigation into where the coronavirus came from in Wuhan. Cattle, wine, timber, cotton, and seafood were also cheap.

But China’s importance to other Australian countries could reduce its response, Cabestan said.

“About [of worsening relations] in trade it has become important in some areas but few as iron, “he said.” China is needed in Australia and Australia. ”

Last month, Human Rights Watch, headquartered in the United States, said the Beijing Games were “polluted and oppressed” and called for donors around the world, including Visa, Coca-Cola and Omega, to apply. their power to deal with the supposed freedoms. difficult in China.

This week, New Zealand also said it would not send ambassadors to the Beijing Games, but expressed concern over the spread of the Covid-19 instead of being politically motivated. The UK parliament voted in favor of the ban on the game in July.