China says the boycotts of its Winter Olympics don't matter because those officials were never invited and nobody will miss them anyway

• Nations including the US are staging a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
• China dismissed those plans, saying no one would have cared if the officials came anyway.

China dismissed some countries' plans to stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, saying those officials weren't invited and no one would actually care if they came or not anyway.

Countries like the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, announced plans to boycott the games by not sending diplomatic officials, citing China's human-rights record. They still plan on sending their athletes to compete.

But China says their plans don't matter.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said on Wednesday that it makes no difference to China whether the Australian officials come.

"China hasn't invited any Australian government official to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics," he said. "In fact, no one would care whether they come or not, and Australian politicians' political stunt for selfish gains has no impact whatsoever on the Olympics to be successfully held by Beijing."

Following UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Wednesday announcement that no British government ministers would attend the Winter Olympics, a Chinese official in London said it had not invited any UK officials in the first place, Reuters reported.

The White House announced on Monday that no US officials would be sent to the games, citing "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang."

Since at least 2016, China has systematically cracked down on the Muslim-majority Uyghur population in the region of Xinjiang, and is said to have detained up to 1 million of them in prison-like camps.

When asked about the US plan, Zhao Lijian, another foreign ministry spokesman, said Monday: "I want to stress that the Winter Olympic Games is not a stage for political posturing and manipulation.

"US politicians keep hyping a 'diplomatic boycott' without even being invited to the Games. This wishful thinking and pure grandstanding is aimed at political manipulation."

He may have been referring to US lawmakers' previous calls for diplomats to boycott the games.

New Zealand governmental also said its diplomats would not be going to the Games, due to "a range of factors but mostly to do with COVID," The Guardian reported.