“I applaud the Biden administration for forcefully underscoring that the preservation of human rights is still a foundational pillar of American foreign policy.”
WASHINGTON – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) today released the following statement following reports that the Biden administration will officially impose a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing, China. The Menendez-authored Strategic Competition Act, which passed the Senate as part of the comprehensive legislative package to bolster U.S. competiveness with China, included provisions requiring a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics in light of the Chinese government’s human rights abuses in Tibet, the crushing of Hong Kong’s autonomy, and genocide perpetrated against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
“I welcome reports that President Biden has decided to impose a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympics, which is a powerful rebuke of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of genocide in Xinjiang. As we laid out in our bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, this boycott is a necessary step to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to human rights in the face of the Chinese government’s unconscionable abuses. I applaud the Biden administration for forcefully underscoring that the preservation of human rights is still a foundational pillar of American foreign policy.
“I also call on other allies and partners that share our values to join with the United States in this diplomatic boycott. As the CCP continues with its mass internments, family separations, forced labor, forced renunciations of faith, and forced sterilizations, the world must be united in confronting the staggering enormity of Beijing’s egregious human rights violations and hold those who perpetuate these atrocities to account.”
###