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We in the U.S., and our government, see ourselves as defenders of human rights.
I think the Bush administration has been courageous in the past, when it met with the Dalai Lama despite Chinese protests (that meeting was I believe the first between a U.S. president and the DL). But I think now the Bush administration should be speaking out more forcefully against Chinese human rights policies, especially with the Beijing Olympics coming up.
I'm not right now in favor of anything like a boycott of the Olympics. A boycott should be reserved only for extraordinary situations (such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, which occasioned the American boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980). Plus we want to avoid punishing American athletes for the China's sins, if we can; they've all been training hard for years for the upcoming games. But President Bush still has the bully pulpit of the White House. Let's use it.
