Chinese media: US paying athletes to disrupt Beijing Olympic Games
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China is accusing the United States of not only boycotting the Beijing Olympics but also "enticing athletes to compete half-heartedly" to ruin the games.
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Chinese media says the US pays athletes to 'disrupt' Beijing Games.
Chinese state media reported that the United States intends to "maliciously disrupt and spoil" the Beijing Winter Olympics by enticing athletes to compete half-heartedly and to criticize Beijing.
A week before the Games, amid tensions between the two, China Daily quoted unnamed sources saying that US "anti-China forces" sought to disrupt the Games and politicize sports on Friday evening.
"We were not and are not coordinating a global campaign regarding Olympic participation," a US embassy spokesman told Reuters by email on Saturday.
"US athletes are entitled to express themselves freely in line with the spirit and charter of the Olympics, which includes advancing human rights," the spokesman said. "China will continue to try and mislead the public about our decision to deflect attention from their egregious human rights record."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment. According to the report, the plan is to "incite athletes from various countries to express their discontent toward China, play passively in competition, and even refuse to participate."
In exchange, Washington promised to pay a large sum of money and "mobilize global resources" to help protect the reputations of athletes who choose to play passively, according to the report.
US should stop interfering in Beijing Olympics
According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, China's top diplomat Wang Yi spoke with his US counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"The most urgent priority right now is that the US should stop interfering in the Beijing Winter Olympics," Wang said during the call.
The Ministry statement quoted Wang as saying that "the US should stop interfering with the holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics, stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue, and stop creating all kinds of anti-China circles."
Beijing has repeatedly railed against the politicization of sport and the International Olympic Committee has made similar calls to separate sport and world affairs.
Beijing Winter Olympics boycott
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said "The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games given the PRC's (People's Republic of China) ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses."
"The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home."
Sending official representation to the Olympics would signal that, despite China's "egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang," the Games were "business as usual," Psaki said.
"And we simply can't do that," she continued.
The move was followed by the UK, Australia, and Canada. Their athletes will still participate in the Games nonetheless.
China condemned afterward the decision of the four countries, which announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing next February, warning that they will "pay the price."
