Expert: Boycotting the Winter Games will do little
According to a China expert, the political boycott of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics by the United States and a number of other countries will cause irritation in Beijing, but otherwise have little effect. “Well, someone will be itchy,” said Katja Drinhausen from the Berlin China Institute Merics of the German Press Agency. “However, it is not to be expected that there will be any changes in behavior.”
The opposite is the case. “What you can already see is that China is consciously trying to present itself here as a victim and not as a perpetrator,” said the well-known China expert. “And that will certainly catch on to a certain extent in the population and be adopted as the primary view of things.”
Because of tensions with China and human rights abuses in the host country, countries including the US, Britain, Canada and Australia are boycotting Friday’s opening ceremony by not sending government officials. Germany is not represented either, but like Japan, it does not speak of a boycott.