2021 Issue 50

SUBSCRIBE

Japan announced this week that it would not send cabinet officials to the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics. Tokyo joined a growing chorus of countries which have decided to withhold government officials in protest of human rights abuses perpetrated by the CCP—from an ongoing genocide against ethnic and religious minorities, to the systematic suppression of civil liberties in Hong Kong and throughout the mainland.  Unfortunately, France joined Russia in announcing that it would not join a diplomatic boycott, which President Macron called “insignificant.” As France seeks to persuade the rest of the European Union to join its position, Lithuanian diplomats were forced to abruptly leave the People’s Republic of China this week. The CCP’s efforts to economically coerce and diplomatically isolate Lithuania, a member of the European Union, underscores the extent to which the CCP remains intent on imposing its worldview in capitals around world.