Olympics 2022: the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games promises to be very fragmentary

The accounts will be made on Friday February 4 at 1 p.m., since this will be the time for the official opening of the Games. But at this stage it is only Washington and its Anglo-Saxon allies who have chosen this diplomatic boycott formula. Remember that this is not a sports boycott, as for example during the Moscow Games in 1980. This time the athletes are all authorized to move. On the other hand, it implies the absence of any official political representative.

The United States thus intends to protest against the Chinese repression against the Muslim minority of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region. And it’s obviously one more episode in cold war climate between Washington and Beijing. After the American announcement at the beginning of December, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia adopted the same position: no official delegation, no minister and even less a head of government. This is also part of a global landscape of very tense diplomatic relations between these countries and China. And finally the list stops about there, of the capitals which assume an official diplomatic boycott because of the question of the Uyghurs.

Conversely, there are those who will be there and there. At the top of the list, Vladimir Putin. The Russian President side by side with Chinese President Xi Jinping will undoubtedly be one of the striking images of the opening ceremony. Especially since in theory, Russian leaders are banned from Olympic competitions, after the discovery of a generalized doping system in the country. Only a few Russian athletes can compete under a neutral banner.

But in this case, Vladimir Putin has a derogation since he was officially invited by his Chinese counterpart. Next Friday’s opening ceremony will even be preceded by a China-Russia summit in Beijing. Quite a symbol, in the midst of a crisis between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

Apart from Putin, a good twenty heads of state and government are expected. The list is out this morning in the official Chinese press. There are mainly authoritarian leaders like the Egyptian Sissi, the Saudi MBS or the Kazakh Tokaiev. And also several leaders from Asia or the Middle East: the King of Cambodia, the President of Singapore or the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The latter country constitutes a major axis of the Chinese strategy of the “New Silk Roads”. Let us add the UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres, also announced, and two European presidents, again authoritarian figures, the Pole Duda and the Serb Vucic.

And then there is the third and last scenario, all the countries “in between”: neither presence nor official boycott, it is ultimately the majority. There are those who will boycott but without pronouncing the word boycott, for example Japan or the Netherlands. And then all those who are going to do the minimum service. For example France, which plans to send only the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, and still probably not to the opening and closing ceremonies.

In fact, many diplomats consider this type of boycott unproductive and point out that it won’t change China’s attitude against the Uyghurs. It should also be noted in passing that the 27 of the European Union have not managed to adopt a common position on the subject.