China says UK, US and Australia will ‘pay the price’ over diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics

China has said Australia, Britain and the US will “pay the price” for their “mistaken acts” after diplomatic boycott of February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.

“The United States, Britain and Australia have used the Olympics platform for political manipulation,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, was quoted as saying at a news conference on Thursday by Reuters.

“They will have to pay the price for their mistaken acts.”

The ominous warning from the Asian giant comes as a growing number of western countries have backed calls for a governmental boycott of the event.

Britain and Canada are the latest countries to declare they would not be sending their ministers to attend the Winter Olympics that are due to be held in February next year.

Both the countries had announced they would be participating in a diplomatic boycott of the event on Wednesday. A diplomatic boycott will still enable the athletes to participate in the Olympics.

Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau said the country’s announcement of the boycott “shouldn’t be a surprise” to China as it would be aware of the demands of western countries over alleged human rights violations.

France, however, will not boycott the event, the country’s education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told news channel BFM TV, according to Reuters.

“As for a diplomatic boycott... France will not do it... Sports is a world in itself, which must be protected from political interference, otherwise... we can end up by killing the competition,” he said.

The French presidency had earlier on Wednesday said in a statement that there would be a reaction on the issue at the “European level”.

“We take note of the decision of the Americans. When we have concerns on human rights, we say so to the Chinese, we took sanctions on Xinjiang last March. We will coordinate at European level,” the statement said.

China had earlier singled out the US after its own boycott announcement, saying the country would “pay a price”. Chinese foreign ministry Zhao Lijian had told reporters then to “stay tuned for follow-ups”.

The country has consistently denied widely reported allegations of human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority community in the Xinjiang region.

The US has increasingly stepped up measures against China.

Its House of Representatives on Wednesday passed three measures against China that ban imports from Xinjiang and condemn the “ongoing genocide” in the region and also forced labour in the region, apart from the alleged human rights abuses.

A resolution that said the International Olympic Committee violated its own human rights commitments by cooperating with China was overwhelmingly passed, with 428 votes supporting it and none against it.

Gao Feng, a spokesman at the Chinese commerce ministry, said the country “firmly opposed” the measures.

The US “wrongdoing” would hurt the interests of consumers and companies in both countries and increase tension on global supply chains, he added.

Additional reporting by agencies