US President Joe Biden, according to sources, has confirmed that he is considering a diplomatic boycott of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Beijing. "It's something we're thinking about," Biden said after a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office.
Biden is not anticipated to attend the future Olympics in China in February 2022, a senior administration official said, and his government is on the verge of enacting a diplomatic boycott of the games, the official added. The President has not signed off on having no government personnel attend, a senior administration official said, but discussions over the topic have all pointed in that way, according to the source.
The decision to consider a boycott of the Olympics, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, "doesn't indicate anything" about the Biden-Xi meeting. "Certainly, there are a number of factors as we look at what our participation would be," Psaki said of the administration's significant worries about China's human rights abuses.
When reporters asked for more details about what a possible diplomatic boycott would entail and what that would imply for athletes, Psaki responded she didn't have any new information.
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