China Demands U.S. Halt Olympics ‘Interference’

BEIJING (AP) – China is demanding the U.S. end “interference” in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin next month. The Foreign Ministry said Minister Wang Yi made the demand in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday Beijing time. The U.S. has said it will not send dignitaries to the Games, which begin on Feb. 4, in a protest over China’s detention of more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, along with crackdowns on human rights elsewhere in the country. According to a news release posted on the ministry’s website Thursday, Wang also called for an end to U.S. support for self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.