BBC’s misleading headline: ‘US diplomats to boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics’

Developing Just Leadership

Crescent International

Jumada' al-Ula' 02, 1443 2021-12-06

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

How news is distorted to serve one’s purpose is best illustrated by the above BBC headline of today (Monday December 06, 2021).

The British foreign office funded outfit wrote: “The US has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.”

There is a tiny problem with this assertion.

China did not extend an invitation to US President Joe Biden to attend the Beijing Olympics to be held from February 4-20, 2022.

This is what the Olympic committee rules require for inviting politicians, including heads of state.

Compare this with the invitation sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as September 2021.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Tass news agency as saying that President Vladimir Putin had accepted “with delight” an invitation to the Games from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Tass reported this following a meeting between Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Dushanbe on September 16.

Biden’s announcement of a ‘diplomatic boycott’ of the games came after he waited for two months for a Chinese invitation.

It never materialized.

To cover up his embarrassment caused by the Chinese snub, Biden announced the ‘diplomatic boycott’.

Can one boycott an event to which one is not invited?

On November 29, Global Times had reported “that as the host country of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China never plans to invite US and Western politicians who hype the ‘boycott’ topic to attend the Games and experts said that their so-called boycott is nothing but self-deception.”

Global Times had reported this a week before Biden’s announcement of a boycott!

Surely, the BBC could not have been unaware of Beijing’s position when it wrote: “The White House said no official delegation would be sent to the games because of concerns about China’s human rights record.”

None was invited.

The BBC, however, quoting White House sources, said that “US athletes could attend the games and would have the government’s full support.”

Olympic games are held for athletes to compete in.

Politicians and diplomats appear as guests of the host country.

The Chinese clearly felt that American and Western politicians did not deserve this courtesy.

The BBC has once again been exposed as nothing but a purveyor of distortion and half-truths.

There are no surprises there.

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