PM Scott Morrison invokes alleged human rights abuses by China, saying only Australian athletes will go to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Australia will not send officials to the upcoming winter Olympics in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said, joining a US diplomatic boycott of the event.
“Australia will not step back from the strong position we had standing up for Australia’s interest, and obviously it is of no surprise that we wouldn’t be sending Australian officials to those Games,” he said on Wednesday.
Morrison said the Chinese government has not yet made any attempts to respond to several issues raised by Australia including alleged human rights abuses.
“So it is not surprising therefore that Australian government officials would not be going to China for those games. Australian athletes will though,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
On Monday, New Zealand said it will not send officials to the event, citing coronavirus fears.
There was no immediate comment from Beijing.
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China slams diplomatic boycott
US and its allies accuse China of human rights abuses against Muslim ethnic groups in its western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, an allegation Beijing denies.
China has repeatedly condemned calls for a diplomatic boycott, in which countries do not send officials to attend the opening ceremony, as “malicious hype”.
Several Western countries and campaigners say that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
The Chinese government rejects complaints of abuses and says the camps are for job training to support economic development and combat extremism.
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