Winning the Olympics in Beijing would send a stronger message than a boycott

Earlier this month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration wasn’t considering a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. This announcement came on the heels of a turbulent month of United States-China relations that included a heated summit in Alaska, sanctions on Chinese nationals for human rights abuses, and seven Chinese supercomputing entities being blacklisted by the Commerce Department.

The public is almost evenly split on the announcement. In a recent survey conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 49% of respondents said they support boycotting the Olympics in response to China’s human rights abuses, while 46% opposed such a boycott.