England announced on Wednesday (8) that it would join the United States, Canada and Australia in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in China, which will take place in 2022.

The White House announced Monday that U.S. officials would not attend the event, although it did not ban the athletes in the delegation from participating. The motivation is the Beijing government’s numerous violations of international human rights treaties, which the government has called “atrocities.”

“There will indeed be a boycott of the Beijing Games. No minister or official should attend,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

“I do not think that sports boycotts are wise, and that remains the government’s policy,” the Prime Minister added.

The news agency Reuters reported that China had not extended any invitation to British ministers.

“The Beijing Winter Olympics are a gathering of Olympic athletes and winter sports fans from around the world, not a tool for political manipulation for any country,” a Chinese diplomatic representative said.

The announcement that Canada would also join the boycott was also made today by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Many partners around the world are extremely concerned about the repeated human rights violations committed by the Chinese government. For this reason, we are announcing today that we will not send any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic Games,” the Canadian Prime Minister said at a press conference.

with information from Reuters

article updated at 7:04 p.m. to add information