The Australian Olympic Committee said the arrangements for the 40 or so Australian athletes expected to compete at the games would not be impacted by Morrison’s announcement. Referring to the U.S., Wang said Australia was “blindly following certain countries in their steps to confuse right and wrong without a bottom line.' “The Australian politicians’ political posturing and hyping for their own political interest have no impact whatsoever on the successful Beijing Olympic Games.' “China has not invited any Australian government officials to attend the Winter Olympics, and no one would care about whether they come or not,' Wang said at a daily briefing.

and Australian decisions fall short of those calls but come at an exceptionally turbulent time for international relations and have been met with a barrage of criticism from China.Ĭhinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denounced Morrison's announcement as “political posturing,' but did not directly threaten the “resolute countermeasures' it vowed to exact on the U.S. Rights groups have pushed for a full boycott of the games, accusing China of rights abuses against ethnic minorities.

“There’s been no obstacle to that occurring on our side, but the Chinese government has consistently not accepted those opportunities for us to meet,” Morrison said. He said his government was very happy to talk to China about their differences. He said Australian athletes would still be able to compete.Īs well as citing human rights abuses, Morrison said China had been very critical of Australia’s efforts to have a strong defense force in the region, “particularly in relation, most recently, to our decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.” “I’m doing it because it’s in Australia’s national interest,” Morrison said.

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