The Biden administration has imposed a full diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, a move unlikely to thaw the increasingly frosty relationship between the US and China.

No US government officials will attend the games, although American athletes will be able to compete.

“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Olympic 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.

“The athletes on team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 per cent as we cheer them on from home. We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games,” she added.

Chinese foreign affairs spokesman Lijian Zhao declared Biden’s announcement “a blatant political provocation and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion Chinese people”.

He continued: “The US should follow the Olympic spirit of ‘together’ and stop politicising sports and the diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 lest it would affect China-US dialogue and co-operation on key areas. China will take resolute countermeasures if the US is bent on the wrong decision.

“No one actually cares whether or not the politicians clamouring for ‘boycott’ would come to the Beijing Winter Olympics.”

Australian Liberal senator Eric Abetz has called on the Morrison government to do likewise, outlining a litany of human rights abuses.

“Australia must not be complacent but move with speed to demonstrate our long commitment to upholding human rights and calling out where they are breached,” he said.

“From the Uighurs, organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, slave labour, the Hong Kongers, the Tibetans, the Mongolians, the Dalai Lama, debt-trap diplomacy, the South China Sea Islands, religious and journalistic persecution to all other grave injustices committed by the CCP dictatorship means we must not give official representation at these Games.”