Olympics News : China fury as USA, UK, Australia and Canada stage Olympic snub

Diplomatic boycotts of the Olympics aim to snub host nations while keeping athletes free to compete.

A small cascade of government boycotts hit China on Wednesday, less than two months before the Beijing Olympics open.

The impact of these political weapons on athletes at the games should be close to zero, and viewers should see no difference in their broadcast content.

Their aim is calculated to hurt the pride of host nations such as China, which often have both sports and politics mixed into their motives for staging events as big as an Olympics or soccer’s World Cup.

In Australia, then the United Kingdom and Canada, governments announced their refusal to send officials to the Winter Games being held between February 4th and 20th.

The move against China started in the United States on Monday.

Those countries are longtime diplomatic allies that want to shine attention on China’s human rights record, and especially the treatment of its Muslim-majority Uyghur people that some call genocide.