On August 11, 2021, Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US, Minister Counsellor Mr. Liu Pengyu, wrote a letter to the Editorial Board of the Washington Post. Part of the letter was published on the Aug 23 Washington Post opinion page. The full text is as follows:

With regard to "Celebrate Sports, Not Dictatorship" dated Aug.10, an editorial awash with disinformation and condescending prejudice on China, as the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US, I feel obliged to set the record straight.

First, authoritative international opinion polls show that the Chinese people's approving rate of the Chinese government has been over 90% for many years. The path chosen by the Chinese people has been proved correct and will not be discredited or denied by one or two media outlets or some politicians. Second, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang affairs are all China's internal affairs. China's sovereignty allows no external interference. This is also a basic tenet of international law.

On the Taiwan question, China's bottom line of safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity must not be crossed. The US should earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three Sino-US Joint Communiques and stop playing the "Taiwan card". The Hong Kong national security law has restored social order in Hong Kong and is welcomed by most local residents and foreign businesses in Hong Kong. If the siege of Capitol Hill is considered as "insurrection" and "domestic terrorism" in the US, why is the same violence in Hong Kong deemed "pro-democracy" and "pro-freedom"? The "genocide" allegation on Xinjiang is a Lie of the Century and has been proved false time and again. If anyone from the WP editorial board visits Xinjiang, he/she will know its absurdity. Over the past four decades, the Uyghur population in Xinjiang has grown from 5.5 million to 12.8 million and the average life expectancy increased from 30 years to 72 years. Have you ever seen "genocide" like this? On the origin tracing of COVID-19, we oppose politicization, stigmatization and "presumption of guilt". We support the WHO in carrying out open, fair and transparent investigations based on science and facts in multiple places in the world, so as to find out the truth at an early date, including about the cases that had occurred in the US before November 2019.

Speaking of human rights, it is known to all that the US created large-scale humanitarian crisis and human rights disasters in Iraq and Syria. There are also many instances of human rights violations in the US. Following the logic of WP, I cannot but ask: is the US qualified for hosting the Olympics?

The preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games are well underway. We have every confidence to work with various parties to make the Games a simple, safe and splendid Olympic gathering. The "boycott" you are calling for is actually an attempt to kidnap global athletes and companies with its ignorance and anti-intellectualism and attack China at their expenses. In fact, what we should truly boycott is such an attempt to use "human rights" to politicize the Olympics.