Australia follows US in diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

New York: Australia will not send officials to the upcoming winter Olympics in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, joining a US diplomatic boycott of the event.

Canberra’s decision comes amid “disagreement” with China over a number of issues, including Australia’s foreign interference laws and a recent decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, Morrison said.

“Australia will not step back from the strong position we’ve had standing up for Australia’s interests, and obviously it is of no surprise that we wouldn’t be sending Australian officials to those Games,” he said.

The decision, which stopped short of preventing athletes from attending, comes a day after the United States announced its diplomatic boycott.

The US decision was taken over what Washington termed China’s genocide of the Uyghur minority and other human rights abuses.

Morrison also cited human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region and Beijing’s unwillingness to meet Australian officials for talks as key to Australia’s decision.

“There’s been no obstacle to that occurring on our side, but the Chinese government has consistently not accepted those opportunities for us to meet about these issues,” he said.

Over the last two years, China has introduced a raft of punitive sanctions on Australian goods in a fierce political dispute that has frozen ministerial contacts and plunged relations into the most serious crisis since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

Australia’s move to equip its navy with nuclear-powered submarines under a new defense pact with Britain and the United States widely seen as an attempt to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific region also infuriated Beijing.

Xi calls for sinicization of religion

Beijing: China is set to tighten control over religions practiced in the country after President Xi Jinping stressed the “sinicization” of faith and uniting “believers” around the Communist Party and socialist values at a conference held in Beijing last week.

“China must adhere to the direction of the sinicization of religion, insist on uniting the masses of religious believers around the party and the government,” Xi said.

Religions in China should be developed in the Chinese context and active guidance should be provided for the adaptation of religions to the socialist society, he said.

Xi’s call for sinicization of religions, which essentially means molding religions according to Chinese socialist norms, comes against the backdrop of accusations that the government is oppressing Muslims and Buddhists in Xinjiang and Tibet respectively, and intermittently cracking down on Christianity, said to be the fastest developing religion in China.

Image courtesy of (Photo: rfa.org)

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