CSP/TIPP Poll: Americans Back Total Olympic Boycott Under Certain Conditions

Before the Biden administration announced its diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Americans came out to support a total boycott of the Chinese games under certain conditions as polled by the Center for Security Policy and TIPP Insights.

The CSP/TIPP poll asked Americans if a full athlete boycott would be justified under the five following conditions:

19%: Even if China simply maintains the status quo.
10%: If China attacks U.S. military assets in the region.
9%: If China continues to "disappear" prominent citizens like tennis star Peng Shuai.
6%: If China continues to oppress the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, including mass deportation to reeducation camps.
6%: If China initiates military action against Taiwan and/or other neighbors.

A total of 50% said a full athletic boycott was justified under one of those conditions, including almost 1 in 5 that supported it without any further development leading to it. Just 25% replied a full boycott would not be justified under any of those conditions, while another 24% said they were unsure.

President Joe Biden has since announced the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games in February, but the move was panned as "toothless" and largely symbolic, according to CSP reported.

Notably, the decision for athletes not participating is not under U.S. government authority, although it can issue recommendations for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). That group withdrew U.S. athletes from the last Olympic boycott in Moscow in 1980.

That move came after the House (386-12) and Senate (88-4) passed resolutions backing the boycott.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., two frequent Newsmax guests are calling for a full athletic boycott.

"The Biden administration clearly hopes that a diplomatic boycott will be enough to put Beijing on notice," Blackburn wrote this week. "It won't be – and in fact, the promised absence of American officials while still sending Team USA athletes is a welcome development to CCP officials.

"Beijing acts with impunity because the richest and most powerful people in the world allow it to. Peng Shuai now lives at the mercy of monsters because the international community brandished and then shelved reports of tortured dissidents.

"Team USA athletes are poised to walk into a trap because the adults in charge refuse to admit that the CCP placed targets on their backs the moment the IOC accepted Beijing's bid for the Games.

"The solution isn't easy, but it is obvious – and the [Women's Tennis Association's] stand is proof of concept. If the United States looks away, and endorses Beijing's veneer of diplomacy, we are not just enabling evil. We are participating in it."

CSP/TIPP polled 1,301 Americans Dec. 1-4. No margin of error was given.