**The US is preparing to announce a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics,** senior administration officials have told CNN, a move that would mark the most significant US action yet to protest China’s human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims..
The White House is expected to make the announcement as early as Monday or Tuesday and the diplomatic boycott will likely include barring US government officials from traveling to Beijing for the games, the sources said. **US athletes will still be able to compete.**.
The Biden administration has been considering a diplomatic boycott for months, and has been in consultation with US allies, including the United Kingdom and Canada. Both countries have said they are considering their own diplomatic boycotts..
A diplomatic boycott would be a symbolic gesture, but it would carry significant weight. It would be the first time that the US has boycotted an Olympics since the 1980 Moscow Games, which were boycotted by the US and dozens of other countries in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan..
The move would also be a major blow to China, which has invested heavily in the Beijing Olympics and is hoping to use the games to showcase its global standing..
The Biden administration has been under increasing pressure from Congress and human rights groups to take a tough stance against China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims. The US has accused China of carrying out genocide against the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that lives in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang..
China has denied the allegations and called the claims of genocide .
