Joe Biden set to ‘declare’ diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics amidst safety concerns of Peng Shuai


Joe Biden set to ‘declare’ diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics amidst safety concerns of Peng Shuai

Peng Shuai and Joe Biden

Peng Shuai‘s accusation of sexual assault and forced sexual relationship by Zhang Gaoli, one of the senior-most minister of China’s Communist Party, has taken the entire world by surprise and anger as well over the silence of Chinese officials in covering up the case that also saw Peng being unheard or unseen for weeks after she made the accusations.

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Despite the International Olympic Committee(IOC) accepting the ‘proofs’ presented by China over the safety of Peng, the WTA and other organisations remain sceptical of the images and videos presented calling them morphed given IOC and China’s good relationship and Gaoli being one of the heads of the panel that secured the hosting rights to Beijing for the Winter Olympics.

With the rising concerns over the tennis players safety, many nations have condemned the inaction of the Chinese government and now the USA is set to announce a major step towards the upcoming Winter Olympics that are set to begin in February followed by the Paralympics.

The USA is now planning to do a ‘diplomatic boycott’ of the tournament, meaning that the players would be allowed to participate in the tournament but there will be no American officials making the trip to China as dignitaries. The Americans had announced this plan in November but now seems to be working on it showing that the threats made earlier were real.

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“There are areas that we do have concerns about the human rights abuses. We have serious concerns about the human rights abuses we’ve seen in XinXiang and certainly, there is a range of factors as we look at what our presence would be,” said Jen Psaki, White House spokesperson and US Press Secretary hinting that an official announcement by the Presiden Joe Biden is expected next week.

WTA continues their efforts to contact Peng Shuai

Steve Simon and Peng Shuai
Steve Simon, President of WTA and Peng Shuai

WTA had made threats to cancel all tournaments in China and Hong Kong if legitimate proof of Peng’s safety was not provided. With China unable to provide satisfactory proof, WTA President Steve Simon announced that all tennis activities in China and Hong Kong will be suspended.

The WTA also announced their new calendar which does not have any tournament in China planned. The ATP and the ITF have however made weak and coward statements and much to the surprise of everyone have failed to follow WTA’s footsteps into the case.

Also Read: “We don’t want to punish a billion people”: ITF refuses to suspend tennis activities in China over Peng Shuai case

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