US to ‘Pay a Price’ for Diplomatic Olympics Boycott, Warns Beijing

China will respond with “firm countermeasures” to the Biden administration’s decision not to send an official U.S. delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Tuesday. The U.S. “has been fabricating the biggest lie of the century about so-called ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang, but it has long been debunked by facts,” said the spokesperson. “The U.S. should stop politicizing sports, and stop disrupting and undermining the Beijing Winter Olympics, lest it should affect bilateral dialogue and cooperation in important areas and international and regional issues.” Having U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat the Beijing Olympics “as business as usual” amid China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told a media briefing Monday.