By DPA
Beijing : China Tuesday sharply dismissed Olympic boycott talks within the European Union (EU).
“We resolutely oppose countries and individuals to politicise the Olympic Games and connect some other issues with the Olympic Games,” said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.
“That violates the Olympic spirit and is unfair to China…It is not fair to all sports people in the world…We hope the relevant organizations adopt a responsible attitude,” he said.
Some EU politicians have mentioned a boycott of the August 8-24 Games in Beijing in connection with China’s dealing with the unrest in Tibet. The EU’s foreign policy commission was due to meet Wednesday over the Tibet issue.
However, the decision whether to send athletes to Beijing or not lies within individual countries and not the EU. No nation has so far considered a boycott.
Last week the US Olympic Committee ruled out an American boycott, saying that an Olympic boycott accomplished nothing apart from unnecessarily and unfairly punishing athletes.
The German Olympic Committee followed suit Easter Monday, saying they too had decided not to boycott the Olympics.
In a statement released by the committee, they said that they had taken an earlier statement by the Dalai Lama into consideration.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader had said that there should be no boycott and called on the Chinese and demonstrators to refrain from violence.