China has reportedly lashed out like a grumpy teen over the Australian government’s decision to diplomatically boycott the Beijing Winter Olympic Games next year.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that Aussie diplomats will not be attending the Beijing Winter Olympics in February next year, following the United States’ decision for their diplomats to boycott the Games. Australia’s athletes will still go off to compete but politicians and ambassadors will be staying put and watching the Games from afar.
According to Morrison, the government’s decision was based on widespread reports of the Chinese government’s human rights abuses, particularly the treatment of ethnic Chinese Muslim people from the Uyghur community in Xinjiang.
Morrison told reporters in Sydney today that the decision is based on the Chinese government’s continuous human rights abuses in Xinjiang where the Chinese government has kept millions of ethnic Chinese-Muslim people from the Uyghur community in concentration camps.
Not gonna lie, we love to see our government stand up for what’s right but it’s a bit fkn rich of them to say this when refugees are rotting in detention centres and First Nations Peoples continue to be incarcerated. The decision is also absolutely inspired by US President Joe Biden‘s similar announcement earlier this week, which makes this news feel like Morrison is acting like a kid choosing his favourite parent in our nation’s international relations divorce.
“Australia’s a great sporting nation and I very much separate the issues of sport and these other political issues,” he said via the Guardian.
So, given the two countries are practically walking on eggshells whenever they talk to each other atm, you’re probably sitting in bed reading this and wondering, ‘wait, how exactly did China take this news?’ Well, chief, not very well.
In the most grumpy teen move of the whole thing, the Australian Federal Press News Agency said that reps of the Chinese embassy in Canberra responded: “nobody cares”.
#BREAKING China says ‘nobody cares’ about Australia Olympics diplomatic boycott pic.twitter.com/qH9oQFllk9
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 8, 2021
China accused the federal government of “political posturing and [playing] selfish games”. Oof. Now, I didn’t study law or international relations but that sounds a bit hypocritical coming from a government that’s been accused of keeping an ethnic minority in prison. IDK, just a thought!
“Australia’s success at the Beijing Winter Olympics depends on the performance of Australian athletes, not on the attendance of Australian officials, and the political posturing by some Australian politician,” the Chinese embassy in Canberra said via the Guardian.
Per that same outlet, the New Zealand government has also decided to not send diplomatic reps to the Games, listing a “range of factors but mostly to do with Covid”.
Experts have been debating whether the Chinese government should be held legally accountable for the pandemic since the dawn of the first reported case outside of Wuhan. However, within these conversations, it’s extremely worth stressing that nothing that the Chinese government allegedly does or has done justifies any racially-targeted abuse or language towards Asian people around the world. That’s not your political opinion, that’s just racism.
