Bush Chides China - From A Safe Distance
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 8, 2008
KEVIN RUDD yesterday raised the Olympic and then the Australian flag in the athletes village in Beijing, as expectations grew about how the Prime Minister would address the human rights issue after the US President, George Bush, delivered a reprimand to China on the issue.
In a speech delivered from the safer distance of Bangkok, Mr Bush voiced the US's "deep concerns" about religious freedom and human rights in the world's most populous country. But he also praised China for the enormous strides it had made in the past 30 years.Mr Bush said: "America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists."We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labour rights - not to antagonise China's leaders, 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."Police detained US religious activists for attempting to protest in Tiananmen Square, and police in Qianmen held at least three Chinese residents who were protesting about being evicted from their homes.Analysts and human rights groups were sceptical that Mr Bush's remarks, made hours before he left for Beijing to attend tonight's Games opening ceremony, would offset the symbolism of being the first US president to attend an Olympics abroad. Democrats and Republicans in US Congress and human rights groups have criticised Mr Bush's attendance, which they say legitimises the ruling Communist Party's pre-Games crackdown on dissidents and freedom-of-speech advocates.Before leaving Australia for Beijing, Mr Rudd said: "The responsibility of the international community is still to speak with a strong united voice on these questions, while recognising that over time some progress has been made in China. "Remember it was not all that long ago they were in the middle of the Cultural Revolution where people were being put up against a wall and basically knocked off."Nicholas Becquelin, of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, said it was unconscionable for world leaders attending the Olympics to remain silent about human rights abuses in China. He said Mr Bush's decision to speak from Bangkok rather than Beijing showed he was not serious.Mr Becquelin said Mr Rudd, who spoke frankly about Tibet and other human rights issues during a visit to Beijing in April, including a speech to Peking University students, disproved the theory that governments jeopardised their relationships with China by speaking up. China's top leaders are unexpectedly giving Mr Rudd bilateral meetings during his four-day Olympic trip. Mr Rudd meets the Premier, Wen Jiabao, today and the President, Hu Jintao, for private talks tomorrow."Your Prime Minister did it very well last time with his speech [at Peking University]," Mr Becquelin said. "What [Mr Rudd] did gives the lie to the idea that you cannot give constructive criticism to China. There is this middle way between staying silent and offending your host."We have never asked governments to put their diplomatic relations with China in jeopardy. What we are asking them is not to airbrush very serious issues about fundamental rights and freedoms in a country that is now a global power."The Hollywood activist Mia Farrow, an outspoken critic of Chinese foreign policy yesterday applauded the decision of US athletes to choose a Sudanese refugee to be flagbearer at tonight's opening ceremony.In 1991, when he was six Lopez Lomong, now a middle-distance runner, fled the marauding government-backed militia.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald