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Beijing warns US will 'pay the price' for diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics

China has accused the United States of violating the Olympic spirit.

CHINA HAS ACCUSED the United States of violating the Olympic spirit by announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games in February.

Beijing has threatened to retaliate to a US diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, saying the Games are not “a stage for political shows and political manipulation”.

“The US will pay the price for its wrongdoing,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily press briefing when asked about what specific countermeasures Beijing would impose, adding “stay tuned.” 

His comments came amid a barrage of Chinese criticism of the announcement by the Biden administration.

He vowed China would respond with “firm countermeasures” but gave no details.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday that the administration will fully support US athletes competing at the games but will not send US diplomats or officials to attend.

Psaki said the US has a “fundamental commitment to promoting human rights” and that the US “will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games”.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington tweeted that politicians calling for a boycott are “doing so for their own political interests and posturing”.

“In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the #Beijing2022 to be successfully held,” the embassy said.

China’s mission to the United Nations called the boycott a “self-directed political farce”.

“The US just wants to politicise sports, create divisions and provoke confrontation,” it said.

It is not clear whether other countries will follow the US lead.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said today that Japan would make its own decision “from the perspective of national interests, taking into consideration the significance of the Olympic Games and the significance of Japan’s diplomacy. This is the basic attitude of our country.”

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said it remained unclear what the diplomatic boycott means and that a decision on officials attending would be made “at an appropriate time by comprehensively considering various circumstances”.

“In any case, Japan hopes that the Beijing Winter Games will be held as a celebration of peace in line with the principles of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Matsuno said.

The dispatching of high-level delegations to each Olympics has long been a tradition among the US and other leading nations.

Then-president George W Bush attended the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games.

First lady Jill Biden led the American contingent to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo this year and second gentleman Doug Emhoff led a delegation to the Paralympic Games.

With reporting by AFP

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    Mute Peazel
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    Dec 7th 2021, 9:47 AM

    Good aul China. Always acting so benevolent and offended when other countries stand up to it’s crack pot diplomacy. It’s literally a joke.

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    Mute Roy Dowling
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:04 AM

    @Peazel: Good old America doesn’t mind crackpot democracy when the crackpots are using US made weapons.

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:54 AM

    @Roy Dowling: Nothing like whataboutery to excuse cultural genocide, environmental destruction, territorial aggression and holding our citizens hostage. The CCP really should be shunned.

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 11:32 AM

    @Paul Cunningham: Mass graves of indigenous kids are currently being unearthed all over Canada/US, verifiable Indigenous genocide – if you’re not familiar with the last 400 years of settler colonialist atrocities you should really read up on them. The US per capita pollution is over twice that of China, despite China making all the garbage that the West consumes. China is by a huge margin the biggest investor in renewable energy. For territorial aggression- the US has over 800 military bases around the world, supports ethic cleansing in Palestine, has a lucrative arms industry and it bombs civilians regularly, doing so in Syria and Yemen just last night! China is not perfect, but you completely ignoring ongoing Western war crimes by saying ‘whataboutism’, call them both out

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    Mute Pete Brady
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:16 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: Having lived in China and spent a fair bit of time in US, the US has many flaws but the regime in China is oppressive and unless you have ever lived and worked there it is hard to understand or even comprehend. The west is sleeping into a major crisis, road and belt initiative is smothering many poor countries and what they have done in HK and threaten to do similar to Taiwan. The monitoring of internet traffic out in and out of state. BBC world tv signal dies at first mention of China in hotels. Social credit is being trialed. Many feel completely oppressed by the CCP and wont speak up for fear of disappearing. I know so much wrong with US but we really are talking a different scale

    96
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    Mute john smith iv
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:19 PM

    @Paul Cunningham: Muslim countries don’t believe the US propaganda on the Uighers. As you can see they are not boycotting the Olympics. By and large all of your complaints there could be applied to the US, particularly territorial aggression and environmental disaster. Except maybe not holding “our” citizens hostage just whomever they rendition to Guantanamo

    27
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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:21 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: You do know a lot and I mean a lot of those settlers were Irish don’t you? Blaming Americans for what happened over a hundred years ago is just plain silly

    34
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    Mute john smith iv
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:29 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: the only thing I disagree there is attributing carbon costs of Chinese manufacturing to the west. They don’t actually export that much of their GDP (just 8% outside Europe) and if you do that for Chinese manufacturing why not do it for Irish beef exports?

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    Mute John Kelly
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:30 PM

    @thomas walsh: are you saying the Irish that emigrated to America are responsible for the murder and genocide of indigenous Americans? I think you need to retract that statement

    23
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    Mute john smith iv
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:30 PM

    @thomas walsh: actually the Irish mostly went to the cities. Anyway the history of the Irish in America is American history, not Irish history.

    23
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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:31 PM

    @thomas walsh: Yes of course, Irish people took part in awful stuff and there are plenty of Trump fans and colleagues that are irish descendents. I’m not talking about events from a hundred years ago – there is still no equality for indigenous people or decendents of slaves. Biden is approving mining and pipeline licenses at a faster rate than Trump was, health/education/judicial inequality is a serious modern day issue in most colonial countries – Canada and Australia included. It’s farcical for countries that almost wiped out their native populations to accuse China of anything – especially when they cannot present any meaningful evidence to back up their claims.

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:54 PM

    @Pete Brady: Cheers Pete, I’ve been there a few time for business and pleasure. I did not feel restricted or unsafe at any stage and the people were amazing, not what I expected – I can understand why China have some restrictions on western media, given the history & insane propaganda produced. Conversely, West banned CGTN for a while, regularly shuts down Iranian and other press outlets, even locks up journalists for telling the truth & let’s their friends chop journalists up. Most western media & social media outlets are controlled by a select few oligarchs/state/corporate/military interests, little more than drummer boys for war and hegemony. The China social score stories are just nonsense, CIA funded radio ‘Free Asia’ comes out with some bangers. I think the ‘Scales’ are tipped

    24
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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:55 PM

    @John Kelly: not all of them but the Irish as well as many other Europeans had a lot to do with it. Also the Native Americans, who aren’t Native to America by the way. Contributed to a mess of genocide themselves. What I’m really trying to say is blaming people today for stuff that happened hundreds of years ago is silly

    15
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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:58 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: Are you saying China is not running concentration camps for their own citizens? Are you saying citizens of Hong Kong are not being locked up just for protesting? Are you saying that China is not threatening a sovereign nation , Taiwan? You’re just being silly now. And let’s not forget those so called Natives in America did a ton of killing themselves

    30
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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:17 PM

    @thomas walsh: yes of course, it’s the natives fault that they got wiped out, here Thomas have a blanket with chicken pox on it. After year of HK protest funded by western powers, a big fat ’0′ protesters have been killed, the only death were caused by US funded protesters. You seriously need to send your police to China to learn how NOT to kill minorities or protesters. Neither country should unnecessarily imprison or kill anyone IMO

    15
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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:27 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: How about the brave North Koreans who escape that hell into China. And what do your great Chinese do when they catch them? They send them back to certain death.

    18
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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:41 PM

    @john smith iv: Agree about not reattributing carbon costs, main point is that Chinas per-capita carbon footprint is a fraction of most western countries, they build mass transit and invest signiticantly more in renewable energy

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    Mute Peazel
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:48 PM

    @john smith iv: US propaganda about the Uighurs??? You are de-lusional. Organ harvesting, ethnic cleansing. All things that most western nations are up to in the current day and age, sure.

    17
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    Mute Roy Dowling
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    Dec 7th 2021, 3:51 PM

    @Paul Cunningham: Didn’t know the Saudi regime was whataboutrey. There crackpot dictators with US weapons contracts are they not?

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    Mute Michael McGrath
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    Dec 7th 2021, 4:53 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: per capita is the worst way possible of calculating anything. China is responsible on its own for 1 quarter of the carbon footprint of the world and that excludes its exports and military. And even though it invests a lot of money in renewables it invests a hell of a lot more in coal fired powerstations. Irish people are on the hook for every ounce of carbon possible in this country because we are not allowed leverage our agricultural exports against our consumer imports so the whole per capita thing is a load of bull and an excuse to tax the 5h1te out of us

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    Mute Shane McGrath
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    Dec 7th 2021, 9:53 AM

    So funny to hear the US harp on about human rights violations.

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    Mute Alan Wright
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:14 AM

    @Shane McGrath: Yeah, because the US right now have about a million people locked up in “education camps” because if their religious beliefs. Everyone should be boycotting China.

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:19 AM

    @Shane McGrath: I am sure the Uighurs value your support

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 11:44 AM

    @Alan Wright: The US has over 2.2 million locked up in prison, over 90% have never faced trial, they are disproportionately minority black and hispanic. It would appear that Chinas ‘education camps’ as you kindly refer to them are much better at rehabilitating people, Xinjiangs economy and tourism is booming. Maybe, just maybe, the US should change from it’s punitive justice system to a more human centred approach?
    I can recommend several good sources if you want to learn more about Xinjiang.
    Western propaganda is based on the following principles:
    1) We are morally superior and enlightened
    2) X country is doing horrible things
    3) We need to act and do something about it
    And because of point 1, 2 and 3 concurrently are believed every single time.

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    Mute Tomás Barrett
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    Dec 7th 2021, 11:58 AM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: 90% never faced trail because they pleaded guilty. The reason that the majority in jail are black and Hispanic is poverty which leads to crime. If you consider torture to crush people’s spirits ,as “rehabilitation” there is something wrong with you.

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    Mute Alan Wright
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:18 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: Wow, what a load of tripe. You are comparing people that are committed to jail for crimes in the US to what, (justify???), that it’s OK for China to imprison people based on their religious beliefs. Just look to what happened a few weeks ago in the US (man running over ,intentionally, a Christmas parade, killing 6, including grandparents and a child, because that state had a ‘less punitive’ justice system). There is no comparison with what China is doing.

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:37 PM

    @Tomás Barrett: Where did I say I supported torture… I am not aware of any torture camps in Xinjiang, but I’m sure you have some proof you can send me? I do know that I can hop on a plane and go to Xinjiang anytime I want, not so much getting to Guantanamo for my holidays, thats a bit trickier. The US was kind enough to send some Uyghurs to Guantamo for an all inclusive: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/07/uighur-men-guantanamo
    I unequivocally condemn and despise the use of torture and call for all torture camps to be closed, do you?

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:58 PM

    @Alan Wright: Where did you get the idea that people are being out in jail in their hundreds of thousands for their religious beliefs in China? Seriously, where on earth have you come up with that. I’m not sure what your point is with the story about the car at the Christmas parade, you might elaborate

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    Mute Alan Wright
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:08 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: Your deliberate “US = evil” and China are doing nothing attitude is bizarre. Two links for you to show how China are effectively using slave labour (under the guise of “Education Camps) for people of a certain religious belief. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57124636

    https://www.state.gov/forced-labor-in-chinas-xinjiang-region/

    However, I know a person like you will never see anything bur your own dogma. Blocked, as I try limit my engagement to extremists.

    Plus, you were the one that brought up people being locked up in the US, I gave an example of a state with a soft touch on a career criminal that committed an atrocity only a few weeks ago. Your view is blinkered beyond help.

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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:30 PM

    @Kerrill Thornhill: North Koreans who escape that hell have only one way to escape. Into China. What does your benevolent Chinese government do when they catch them? They send them right back into North Korea. Right back to certain death. Why do they not just send them to South Korea? Because they are evil Communists.

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 2:16 PM

    @Alan Wright: Thanks Alan, I’ll read those – the premise of this and most articles in Western media is ‘China is evil’ – making this claim without objectively comparing them with their accuser, or looking at the impact of two different countries on the planet.
    P.S. Let’s pretend we’re both neutral here – and I sent you a document from the Chinese state department and one from their state media – you would literally laugh me out of it. There are no good guys here – but until the US (and their lackeys) stops bombing, sanctioning and killing poor and Brown people all over the planet, it should probably STFU about human rights or people will see them for the hypocrites they are. Fair play to you, at least you read something and posted a link, most people reflexively hate China

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    Mute Maurice Egan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 4:39 PM

    @Alan Wright: The US has the highest per capita prison population in the world. Most people in prison in the US are in prison because of poverty and to feed in to the for profit private prison industry

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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 7:18 PM

    @Maurice Egan: No most people are in prison because they commit crimes. That’s what happens when you commit a crime

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Dec 7th 2021, 7:59 PM

    @thomas walsh: and why do people commit crimes, because they are poor – prisons are primarily places for poor people all over the world, if you eliminate poverty and you effectively eliminate crime. But having a steady supply of poor people to stock your military and for cheap labour is capitalist policy in the US – both republican and democrat. More enlightened countries have policies targetting poverty elimination and associated very low crime rates – no prizes for guessing which Country has done most to eliminate poverty on the planet. Next time you are struggling financially, have a think about how your labour is being exploited to pay for Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos amd their mates joyriding in space.

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:52 AM

    We should follow suit and boycott until they cop on and stop with their hostage diplomacy. Richard O’ Halloran is still there, so whats stopping them simply taking everyone we would send over there as political leverage as well?

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    Mute Seoirse Ó Staighe
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:02 AM

    The joke is the US trying to make itself important while using its finger nails to find some grip as it slides down the cliff edge of world importance. But im afraid the “bould donald” and his “swamp live” base have already sunk that particular ship. I mean who cares whether or not a couple of hundred American bureaucrats and politicians go on a two week junket to China.. Come On..

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:26 AM

    @Seoirse Ó Staighe: “who cares..”. Clearly China does

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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:23 PM

    @Seoirse Ó Staighe: You keep telling yourself that.

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    Mute Quiet Goer
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:49 AM

    In the mid 2000s and possibly later US companies could get a government grant to help outsource their production to China

    How times have changed

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    Mute Sandra Molloy
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:00 PM

    It’s a pity the IOC have no ‘liathroidi’

    41
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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:19 PM

    @Sandra Molloy: the Irish athletes going to Beijing haven’t a Hope in hell of getting a medal , so it would be nice to see them take the lead and not go. They won’t do that because it is all about them and their rights. They will go and not utter a word of protest, because they know they might be able to leave without a fight

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    Mute Willie Bill Bryan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:57 PM

    All sports should shin China until the truth about the tennis star in known

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    Mute A Well Known Comical Stereotype
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    Dec 7th 2021, 11:32 AM

    Defund the CCP!

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    Mute Tigher Roulie
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    Dec 7th 2021, 10:24 AM

    ‘…pay the price’..china says this allot. hope there keeping track of all these offenders

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    Mute John Johnes
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    Dec 7th 2021, 9:38 AM

    China does not mess around tbh.

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    Mute Riddled Fidl
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:47 PM

    “The US has a fundamental commitment to protecting human rights”

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    Mute Jonathan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:41 PM

    US making enemies in the East

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Dec 7th 2021, 12:43 PM

    @Jonathan: plenty of friends in the East, just maybe not China

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    Mute thomas walsh
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    Dec 7th 2021, 1:01 PM

    @Jonathan: that’s ok the USA has plenty of friends in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan , . They’ll be fine

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