US hostility against Beijing Winter Olympic Games a 'flop': POLITICO China watcher

BEIJING - Less than two weeks away from the opening of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, "only nine other nations" have joined the United States in announcing not to send diplomats to attend the games so far. The international response to such acts has ranged from indifference to scorn, a newsletter from US news portal POLITICO has said.

That paltry showing undermines US credibility as an "effective coalition builder," Phelim Kine, host of the POLITICO China Watcher, said in his latest newsletter.

Traditional US allies also have criticized Washington's act against Beijing.

French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed it as "insignificant and symbolic," Czech President Milos Zeman called it a "misuse of the Olympic idea" and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg warned it was an "artificial politicization" of the games, said the newsletter.