In a statement on Monday, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said that President Joe Biden's diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics ''does not go far enough,'' The Hill reported.
''China has been a bad actor and everyone knows it — from continuing to stonewall on the WHO [World Health Organization] investigation of COVID-19 origins to perpetrating genocide and committing mass humans rights violations,'' Ryan said.
The Biden administration announced earlier on Monday that it would diplomatically boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics, saying the U.S. will not send any government officials to the two-week event in protest of China's human rights violations.
The Ohio congressman had previously called on the International Olympic Committee in August to completely bar China from hosting the Winter Olympics unless Beijing cooperated fully with the WHO's inquiry into the origin of COVID-19.
Ryan, a moderate Democrat, is the favorite to win his party's primary for the 2022 Senate election in Ohio. The state used to be considered competitive; Trump-era trends, however, have solidified it as a red state. Trump won Ohio by almost 8 percentage points in 2016 and over 8 points in 2020, according to CNN.
''My experience has been just focusing on the workers, their families, the issues that are important to them, recognizing how hard they are working and still not getting by and getting ahead,'' Ryan told the network in an April interview. ''That is what people are going to vote for.''
''They don't care what political party you are with,'' he added. ''They want to know who you are for.''
If victorious in the primary, Ryan will most likely face either former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, former state Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, businessman Bernie Moreno, state Sen. Matt Dolan, businessman Mike Gibbons or author J.D. Vance.
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