Some have said, over the past few months, that his visit to China for the opening of the Olympic Games was not a good idea, that perhaps he should have boycotted the Games in order to show opposition to China's dictatorship.
But as for me, I didn't think China's conduct rose to the level of, say, a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (which triggered our last boycott, in 1980, of the Moscow Games). Boycotts must be used carefully; we shouldn't use sports boycotts against everything in other nations with which we disagree (if we did, we might not ever send our athletes anywhere). And in any case, President Bush was still free to speak out against Chinese abuses of human rights--which he has done, today:
"With all eyes on Beijing, President Bush bluntly told China that America stands in "firm opposition" to the way the communist government represses its own people, a rebuke delivered from the heart of Asia on the cusp of the Olympic Games. Bush balanced his chiding with praise for China's market reforms and hope that it will embrace freedom, reflecting the delicate balance that Bush seeks to strike with the potent U.S. rival. "We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential," Bush said in perhaps his last major Asia address. "And we press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs," the president said."
Well said.
