English
Bush to Urge China to Improve Human Rights
 President Bush with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on Wednesday. |
BANGKOK — On the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing, President Bush said that he had “deep concerns” about basic freedoms in China and criticized the detention of dissidents and believers, even as he praised the extraordinary gains China has made since he first visited more than three decades ago, according to remarks released by the White House on Wednesday.
Mr. Bush’s remarks, part of a speech on Asia to be delivered in Bangkok on Thursday, distilled and recast previous statements critical of China’s record on human rights. But released only hours before he was to fly to Beijing on Thursday evening, they represented a rebuke to China’s leaders, though a measured one.
“I have spoken clearly, candidly, and consistently with China’s leaders about our deep concerns over religious freedom and human rights,” reads Mr. Bush’s draft speech, which the White House released early in part to draw attention to them, according to a spokesman. “And I have met repeatedly with Chinese dissidents and religious believers.”
“The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings,” says the draft of the speech, which mentions neither the Olympics nor specific abuses that have drawn new international criticism of the Chinese government. “So America stands in firm opposition to Chinas detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates, and religious activists.”
With Mr. Bush’s attendance at the games prompting debate and criticism, the White House has sought to strike a balance between expressing support for advocates of greater political and personal freedom in China and cultivating cooperation with China’s government on a host of trade and security issues.
Mr. Bush has faced pressure from Congress and from international advocacy groups to speak out more forcefully or risk being seen as lending credibility or respectability to a government that restricts the freedoms that the president extols so frequently. The White House, however, chose not to do so in Beijing, either by making a similar address or meeting with dissidents or others facing political persecution.
In Seoul earlier Wednesday, though, Mr. Bush said that he did not believe that the Olympics should be used as an occasion to express his criticism of government constraints of worship and free speech and did not need to be since he had raised them with Chinese leaders throughout his presidency.
“My message has been the same,” he said, when asked about the Olympics during an appearance with President Lee Myung-bak in a garden at the Blue House, the ancient compound in Seoul that serves as the office of South Korea’s president. “You should not fear religious people in your society as a matter of fact, religious people will make your society a better place that you ought to welcome people being able to express their minds.”
He added, “And to the extent that people aren’t able to do that and people aren’t able to worship freely is, you know, I think is a mistake.”
In none of Mr. Bush’s remarks has he directly addressed what advocates have called a pre-Olympic crackdown on dissent and potential protest. Nor did he mention Tibet, whose freedom movement and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, have strong support in the United States and elsewhere.
Even when critical, Mr. Bush reflects a pragmatic view of China and offers a far more lenient judgment of its internal affairs than those of other authoritarian governments, from Myanmar to Belarus, Iran to Zimbabwe. In the same draft, for example, he bluntly calls on Myanmar’s military leaders to release the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and all other political prisoners.
He first visited China in 1975 when his father, the future president George H.W. Bush, served as the chief American representative to the country after President Nixon’s opening to the Chinese.
He recalled the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, the swarming bicycles, the stultifying sameness of people’s clothes. And yet, as he has in interviews and remarks leading up the game, he evoked a sense of both nostalgia and awe for the gains the country has made since then. And he suggested that greater freedoms economically, politically and personally would speed the country’s progress.
“We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to antagonize China’s leaders,” his draft speech says, “but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential. And we press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs.”
The United States and China have complex relations and Mr. Bush has sought from the start of his presidency seven and a half years ago “to set our relationship on a sturdy, principled footing,” the speech says. His remarks credit that strategy for allowing him to speak more forcefully on rights, even if most often in private.
The comments cite the mutual benefits of trade and diplomatic cooperation in security, as has been the case with talks to end North Korea’s nuclear program. They also note an easing of tensions over Taiwan.
“Ultimately, only China can decide what course it will follow,” the draft speech says. “America and our partners are realistic, and we are prepared for any possibility. I am optimistic about China’s future. Young people who grow up with the freedom to trade goods will ultimately demand the freedom to trade ideas, especially on an unrestricted Internet.”
Source: NYT
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