Posted on 11/19/2005 7:05:24 AM PST by Jet Jaguar
BEIJING (AFP) - US President George W. Bush has arrived in Beijing for a three-day visit during which he was expected to raise thorny issues such as human rights and democracy with his Chinese hosts.
Bush flew in from South Korea Saturday, where he had attended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and held talks with South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.
The US president was due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao Sunday before leaving for Mongolia Monday.
Analysts say the zeal with which Bush seeks to promote democratic values and human rights across the globe was unlikely to do much to warm relations with Hu.
On the first stop of his Asian tour in Japan, Bush called on China to grant its people greater political and religious freedoms and hailed Taiwan as a model, angering Beijing which considers the island a breakaway province.
"We encourage China to continue down the road of reform and openness because the freer China is at home, the greater the welcome it will receive abroad," he said Wednesday in a keynote speech in Japan.
China's bulging trade surplus, the yuan currency, which Washington says is undervalued in order to boost exports, and other economic issues were also set to come up during the Bush visit.
Analysts say the breadth of issues on the agenda, ranging from Taiwan to bird flu, underscores the ever more complex nature of the relationship between Beijing and Washington.
11/19/2005 06:40 AFP
Talk, talk, talk.
How...Nixonian of him.
He visited a state-sponsored Christian church. China has a ways to go in getting the idea of separation of church and state.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.