The Biden administration on Tuesday informed a media contingent that comprehensive consultations were ongoing between it and various allies over the prospect of a joint boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Within hours, the US State Department developed cold feet as it was threatened and dictated around by China. So, department spokesperson Ned Price, who had earlier told reporters that the US was deliberating over a joint boycott of the upcoming Olympics, within hours, sent a ‘clarification email’ to various media networks saying that no joint boycott of the Beijing Olympics was being discussed.
The ‘clarification email’ was sent by the Biden administration as China upped the ante against the United States and said that any boycott of the games went against the Olympic charter and athletes’ interests. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “International society will not accept (it).”
The fact that China would have sent stern diplomatic messages to the US State Department asking them to resort to damage control immediately cannot be ruled out. Why else would the Biden administration, responsible for the governance of the world’s most powerful nation, walk back on an emphatic statement made by it within hours?
Earlier, state department spokesperson Ned Price, while briefing the media on Tuesday, was asked whether the US was considering a joint boycott of the Beijing Olympics along with its allies. To this very specific and pointed question, Price replied saying, “It is something that we certainly wish to discuss…We understand that a coordinated approach will be not only in our interests but also in the interests of our allies and partners.”
In a subsequent email in which the state department denied any prospect of a joint boycott following China’s diplomatic offensive against Joe Biden’s pusillanimous administration, Price said, “Our position on the 2022 Olympics has not changed. We have not discussed and are not discussing any joint boycott with allies and partners.”
Questions which need to be asked of the Biden administration at this point are many. Why did Joe Biden and his stooges lie through their teeth that they were deliberating upon a joint boycott of the Beijing Olympics with allies when in reality, there are no such discussions taking place? Or perhaps such consultations were indeed underway, however, after being threatened by China, the Biden administration unanimously walked out of the same, leaving friends and allies around the world in the lurch. One fact, however, has been undisputedly established in the entire fiasco – that the Biden administration has grown a habit of being thrown around like a rag doll and being bullied by China.
Joe Biden, irrespective of the tremendous domestic and international pressure to take the China threat head-on, simply cannot muster the courage to do the needful. After all, he and members of his administration have been compromised by China to the extent that the CCP can dictate their day-to-day activities. A good example of just how insignificant the Biden administration is for China and the CCP was seen recently in Alaska, where top Chinese diplomats Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi thrashed the living daylights out of Joe Biden’s representatives, causing shame to the United States as a whole.
China has been pursuing its expansionist goals around the world, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, with renewed vigour ever since the Biden administration has taken charge of the United States. It knows that there will practically be no consequences for its misadventures in the East and South China Seas, which is why it has been harassing ASEAN nations to a great extent of late. Its aggressive manoeuvres against ASEAN nations in the South China Sea, and against Japan in the East China Sea have been given a miss by nobody. Whether it be the Whitsun Reef or the Senkaku Islands, China has begun heavy proxy-military deployment across the Indo-Pacific which the Biden administration is turning a rather shameful blind eye to. And then there is the issue of Taiwan, which the Biden administration remains non-committed to even in face of the democratic island nation facing unprecedented Chinese aggression.
Hunter Biden was recently in the news as he admitted that the infamous laptop seized by the FBI might very well be his own. But guess what would be even more incriminating for the Bidens than an Apple MacBook Pro? China opening an investigation into Hunter Biden’s rather extravagant dealings in the mainland. This would draw attention from across the world and spell the death knell for the Biden family’s political innings. Joe Biden keeps toeing China’s line to not irk Xi Jinping, mostly at the cost of the integrity and sovereignty of the United States. His backtracking on the issue of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics is also a step aimed at remaining in the good books of the CCP General Secretary.