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White House spokesperson Jen Psaki announces that the US government has decided to carry out a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, to be held in February, during a regular press briefing on Monday. (EPA/Yonhap News)

The first virtual summit between the leaders of the US and China last month was followed by a pair of contradictory reports that underscore the complex nature of the relationship the countries share.

First, there was a report signaling conflict. The day after the summit, Nov. 16, The Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden was exploring the option of a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held in February, to protest China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, home to the Uyghurs.

The second was a hopeful report predicting the possibility of cooperation. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Nov. 17 that Biden had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping during their summit to join the US in releasing some of their strategic oil reserves.

During this virtual summit, which came 10 months after Biden’s inauguration as US president, Biden and Xi agreed to keep managing conflict in the two countries’ relationship. But the news published after the summit offered starkly conflicting visions of the future of that relationship.

The US has followed through with its warnings of a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a press briefing on Monday. PRC is an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

A diplomatic boycott would mean not sending any official government representatives to the opening or closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, while still allowing national athletes to compete in the games.

“I don’t think that we felt [. . .] it was the right step to penalize athletes who have been training, preparing for this moment,” Psaki said, noting that athletes would still be participating. But in light of China’s human rights abuses, she added, “we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.”

The Beijing Winter Olympics will be held on Feb. 4-20 of 2022, followed by the Paralympics on March 4-13.

The US’ announcement of the diplomatic boycott came three days before Biden was set to hold the Summit for Democracy over videoconference on Dec. 9-10. The US invited more than 110 countries — including South Korea and Taiwan — to the summit, but excluded China and Russia.

By officially announcing a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights abuses before a meeting on a scale comparable with the UN General Assembly, the US left no doubt about a showdown between the values of democracy and autocracy.

Such a stance by the US could be interpreted as pressuring countries that share its values to take part in the boycott. Shortly afterward, New Zealand announced it was joining the diplomatic boycott, while the UK, Canada, Australia and Japan are also mulling following suit.

“As the President has told President Xi, standing up for human rights is in the DNA of Americans,” Psaki said. “We will continue to take actions to advance human rights in China and beyond.”

The US’ apparent willingness to emphasize democracy and human rights while risking head-on confrontation with China less than one month after Biden and Xi’s summit can be seen as echoing the US’ two-track strategy on China that the Biden administration has often reiterated — namely, cooperating when possible while not shying away from competition when necessary.

Indeed, the US and China released a joint statement announcing their willingness to cooperate on climate change around last month’s summit and have also set the mood for certain forms of cooperation, including their agreement to release strategic oil reserves to offset international oil prices.

But a cold wind is still blowing, with no signs of compromise, in areas where the US has publicly announced its intention to take on China, including human rights, democracy, Taiwan and high tech.

With Biden foregrounding values such as democracy and human rights more than his predecessors, the limits to cooperation between the two countries are becoming increasingly clear. Strong antipathy to China has appeared on both sides of the aisle, with both human rights groups and the Republican Party arguing that the US shouldn’t even send athletes to the Beijing Olympics, given China’s human rights abuses.

Friction between the two countries is growing as the US leans into its two-track approach of competition and cooperation while China remains committed to the one-track approach of creating a win-win relationship of mutual respect.

The diplomatic boycott has been met with vigorous pushback from China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian reacted angrily when asked about indications that the US would declare a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics during a daily press briefing on Monday — before the White House made the official announcement.

“I want to stress that the Winter Olympic Games [are] not a stage for political posturing and manipulation,” Zhao said. “It is a grave travesty of the spirit of the Olympic Charter, a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”

Zhao concluded with a warning, saying, “If the US is bent on going down this path, China will take resolute countermeasures.”

China launched a counterattack to the US’ self-conception as the arbiter of democracy by publishing a white paper called “China: Democracy That Works” on Saturday, advancing the argument that the Chinese system is actually more democratic.

What course should South Korea take? South Korean President Moon Jae-in had been counting on the possibility of repeating what happened in Pyeongchang in 2018 — bringing together the leaders of South Korea, North Korea, the US and China in one place and setting the stage for reactivating the Korean Peninsula peace process. But the US’ declaration of a boycott has likely ruled out the option of Moon attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

The US and China’s strategic competition has thrown cold water on the Moon administration’s last-push efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula, surely adding to headaches at the Blue House.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent; Jung In-hwan, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]