Britain's Prince Charles will not attend the Beijing Olympics in protest over China's treatment of Tibet.
The prince is a long-standing supporter of Tibet and the Dalai Lama, its spiritual leader.
The Prince of Wales is boycotting the Olympics over China's treatment of Tibet
He hosted a 2004 reception in honour of the Dalai Lama, who has been in exile since an uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
A spokeswoman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Wang Hui, told a news conference in Beijing on Monday that any decision to boycott was unfair.
"The Olympics is a harmonious, competitive and beneficial sports event as well as a significant festival for all the people in the world," she said.
The prince, who wrote in his diaries during the 1997 handover of Hong Kong that senior Chinese officials were "appalling old waxworks", revealed his Olympic decision in a letter to the Free Tibet organisation.