For anyone keeping score, it’s not even close, but to recap: China covered up the initial outbreak of COVID and continues to deny any culpability, it has subjugated Hong Kong, has repeatedly made bellicose military moves, likely kidnapped tennis athlete Peng Shuai, and continues its mass internment and enslavement of Uighurs.
The Biden administration, in turn, has announced it will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move that China has vowed to greet with “firm countermeasures.”
The U.S. will still send athletes to participate in the games, however, a decision that has drawn support from some of Biden’s harshest critics, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
“I really hope our young men and women, that they go over there and kick their commie asses,” Cruz told Politico.
That sentiment was partially shared by White House mouthpiece Jen Psaki, reported the Associated Press.
“I don’t think that we felt it was the right step to penalize athletes who have been training and preparing for this moment,” Psaki said, “and we felt that we could send a clear message by not sending an official U.S. delegation.”
That almost makes sense, except for the inconvenient fact that the Chinese government has made it perfectly clear it doesn’t care if the U.S. sends a diplomatic contingent to the Olympics. In fact, the Cult of Xi would just as soon American politicos stay home.
“China must host this event with rightful justice and tell hostile US politicians that they are not welcome to the event,” opined the Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda newspaper.
“China does not miss the presence of leaders or senior officials from the US or its allies,” the paper reported. ”China’s grace does not need their support.”
Biden’s decision to stall at a diplomatic boycott drew swift rebukes from many, including Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who called the boycott a “half-measure,” reported Newsweek.
“The United States should fully boycott the Genocide Games in Beijing,” Cotton said.
“American businesses should not financially support the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, “and we must not expose Team USA to the dangers of a repugnant authoritarian regime that disappears its own athletes.”
Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, echoed those worries about the safety of American athletes, while calling for a full boycott of the Games.
A diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics is a joke. China doesn’t care if Biden and Team show up. They want our athletes.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 6, 2021
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gave her full support to the mini-boycott and praised Slidin’ Biden’s “strong leadership.”
“As I noted when I called for a diplomatic boycott last May,” Pelsoi tweeted, “the last three decades of Beijing’s abusive and repressive actions show that the international community can no longer give Beijing a blank check and hope that its behavior will simply change.”
China was left less than impressed.
“Without being invited, American politicians keep hyping the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic, which is purely wishful thinking and grandstanding,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.
“If the U.S. side is bent on going its own way,” he said, “China will take firm countermeasures.”
