ong called on Japan to be “strongly cautious about and block such a dangerous” move, warning that such move could damage bilateral diplomatic ties….reports Asian Lite News
Chinese ambassador to Japan, Kong Xuanyou, on Thursday urged Japan not to join the US-led diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights issues.
“Unfortunately, some people in Japan have been attacking China’s political system based on their biased views and spreading rumours and lies about the human rights situations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong to call for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games,” the envoy said in a meeting held at Kyodo News.
Kong called on Japan to be “strongly cautious about and block such a dangerous” move, warning that such move could damage bilateral diplomatic ties.
This comes as earlier in the day Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said that he has no plans to attend the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. He also pointed out that he is considering multiple options over the US-led diplomatic boycott of the games.
Several countries including the US, Australia, Britain and Canada have announced that they will boycott diplomatically over human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese government.
France last week said that it will not boycott in a break from other Group of Seven industrialized nations.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his willingness to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
“I expect that we will finally be able to meet in person in Beijing next February. As we agreed earlier, we will hold talks before attending the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games,” Putin was quoted by the news agency as telling Xi.
Meanwhile, Japan which relies heavily on China on economic terms is considering not sending Cabinet ministers to the Beijing Olympics.