Yahoo News China says UK, US and Australia will ‘pay the price’ over diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics
Watch: China warns UK, US and Australia will pay the price for diplomatic boycott
China has said Australia, Britain and the US will “pay the price” for their “mistaken acts” after diplomatic boycott of February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, Reuters reported the country’s foreign ministry as saying on Thursday.
The ominous warning from the Asian giant comes as a growing number of western countries have backed calls for a governmental boycott of the event.
Britain and Canada are the latest countries to declare they would not be sending their ministers to attend the Winter Olympics that are due to be held in February next year.
Both the countries had announced they would be participating in a diplomatic boycott of the event on Wednesday. A diplomatic boycott will still enable the athletes to participate in the Olympics.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau said the country’s announcement of the boycott “shouldn’t be a surprise” to China as it would be aware of the demands of western countries over alleged human rights violations.
France, however, will not boycott the event, the country’s education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer was quoted as saying by news channel BFM TV.
The French presidency had earlier on Wednesday said in a statement that there would be a reaction on the issue at the “European level”.
“We take note of the decision of the Americans. When we have concerns on human rights, we say so to the Chinese, we took sanctions on Xinjiang last March. We will coordinate at European level,” the statement said.
China had earlier singled out the US after its own boycott announcement, saying the country would “pay a price”. Chinese foreign ministry Zhao Lijian had told reporters then to “stay tuned for follow-ups”.
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