“For heads of state to go to China, in light of a genocide that is ongoing – while you’re sitting there in your seat – really begs the question, what moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world?” Pelosi asked a bipartisan congressional hearing, Reuters reported.

“Let’s not honor the Chinese government by having heads of state go to China,” she said.

In response, speaking to Reuters, Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said any US attempt to use the Olympics to interfere in China’s domestic affairs was bound to fail.

“I wonder what makes some U.S. politicians think they actually have the so-called ‘moral authority’? On human rights issues, they are in no position, either historically or currently, to make wanton groundless criticism against China,” he added.

U.S. lawmakers have increasingly called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics or a change of venue over alleged human rights abuses of Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, a charge that China has vehemently denied.

While some lawmakers have even called out American corporations for their silence on the issue, a coalition of human rights activists has appealed to athletes to boycott the Games.

Barring U.S. athletes from the Games is “certainly not the answer”, said Sarah Hirshland, chief executive officer of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

“Past Olympic boycotts have failed to achieve political ends,” she added.

A senior official said the U.S. government’s position on the 2022 Olympics has not changed. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has said it is considering a joint approach with allies on China’s human rights record, including participation in the February Olympics.

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China’s Wang Yi and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov rejected outside criticism of their authoritarian political systems, claiming their countries are working on international issues, such as climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.

Meeting in the Chinese city of Nanning, Wang and Lavrov said the U.S. was interfering in other countries’ affairs, while urging the U.S. to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Wang was critical of the ongoing coordinated sanctions brought by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States against Chinese officials over human rights abuses in China’s far western Xinjiang region.

“Countries should stand together to oppose all forms of unilateral sanctions,” Wang said, as reported by the Associated Press. “These measures will not be embraced by the international community.”

Russia’s Lavrov noted that western sanctions were bringing together China and Russia, while accusing the West of “imposing their own rules on everyone else, which they believe should underpin the world order.”

“If Europe broke these relations, simply destroying all the mechanisms that have been created for many years … then, probably, objectively, this leads to the fact that our relations with China are developing faster than what’s left of relations with European countries,” Lavrov said.

The west imposed sanctions on China following its imprisoning up to 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups from Xinjiang in special camps.

China claims these people have voluntarily taken part in job training and de-radicalization courses.

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