British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday, December 8, a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will begin on February 4.

During the weekly question and answer session in Parliament, the Prime Minister confirmed that he had taken the same actions as the United States and Australia.

Before the deputies, the head of government stressed that London regularly raised with Beijing the issue of respect for human rights by the Chinese regime, in particular the treatment inflicted on the Uighur Muslim minority.

“We regularly raise these issues with the Chinese and I did so with President Xi myself when I spoke with him recently,” Boris Johnson said.

As a reminder, the United States announced its diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics on Monday. They were followed this Wednesday by Australia.

If the announcement of the American decision has aroused the ire of China, that of Australia has, for its part, Chinese diplomacy indifferent. The latter believing that “nobody cared” whether Canberra would send official representatives or not.

However, this boycott does not concern athletes. Athletes who wish to participate in the Games may do so. This only concerns the representatives.