Posted on 03/20/2008 10:05:25 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The White House said Thursday that China's crackdown in Tibet is not cause for President Bush to cancel his attendance at the Beijing Olympics.
Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino Bush's position is that "this should be about the athletes and not necessarily about politics."
She said that Bush, in accepting the invitation last year from Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend the Olympics, told him that the games would "shine a spotlight on all things Chinese."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Perino added.
Bush agreed to go to the Olympics during a meeting with Hu in Australia last September during the Asia Pacific Economic Council meeting. A White House spokesman said at the time that Bush was going to the games for the sports and not for any political statement.
Protests against Chinese rule in Tibet have drawn a harsh response from Beijing. Authorities say 325 people have been injured and 16 people died.
The European Union spoke out Thursday against any boycott, saying it would be counterproductive to efforts to improve human rights in China.
"Boycotting the XXIX Olympiad is not the right answer to the current political problems," said a statement from Slovenia, which holds the EU's rotating presidency. "A boycott could signify actually losing an opportunity to promote human rights and could, at the same time, cause considerable harm to the population of China as a whole."
The statement follows a meeting of EU sports ministers in Slovenia on Monday where several nations rejected calls for a boycott over China's human rights record.
Arm Tibet
It’s not really a “crackdown” when you have a bunch of unemployed teenagers burning shops and stoning passerbys as the Youtube videos cleary show. Every government in the world would have sent the police or national guard in to quash them.
except maybe France.
Are you a student of history , by chance?
It IS about the athletes.
I still feel for those who didn’t get to compete in 1980. It will be much better to let the games go on, leave politics out of it, and, during his visit, let the President (privately) give the Chinese a good talkin’ to.
I am, and I also know damn well that this riotous behavior by the Tibetans aren’t helping their cause one bit. Tibetans need to win the Chinese populace over for their cause, not just the world. Burning Chinese shops and throwing rocks at ethnic Chinese pedestrians won’t solve a damn thing. It just makes the other 1.3 billion Chinese mad as hell. Tell me, how does that help the free Tibet cause?
No one gives a crap if you crack down on hooligans, certainly not the Chinese.
BOYCOTT THIS FARCE!
Tibetans need to win the Chinese populace over for their cause, not just the world.
—
How, pray tell, do you do that in a society that is controlled by a gubamint that does not allow free speech or dissent? just curious.
The IOC should have thought about the athletes a bit more before selecting Beijing is all I can say.
also, your portrayal of the protesters as hooligans is a bit of a stretch , imo.
smacks of England and what they said about those who supported and rebelled to gain our independence way back when.
Yeah, because like, Carter’s boycotting of the 1980 Olympics was like, so successful and stuff..
oh yeah, too bad they didn’t hold the Olympics in Kabul that year instead. they certainly would have had a lot of Russians in the audience regardless where it was held..
It doesn’t have to be about politics.....it’s about humanity. I don’t believe he should go to China nor should our people.
They are hooligans. You can see the unedited videos for yourself. Here’s one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNOCTwm8D7c&eurl
It wasn’t an organized protest. From the videos you see a few twenty year olds starting to smash a store, and then a few other guys gang up and start chasing after Chinese passerbys.
Some rebel they are. I sure as hell wouldn’t equate these hooligans with our founding fathers.
No, I guess you wouldn’t, you rely on selective pieces to make a point.
Enjoy the Olympics. Screw Tibet. China has been doing so for years.
Remind me not to call you the next time we need to have a revolution here.
Well I suppose if the killing of Americans on a daily basis by illegals isn’t a good enough reason to seal the border then I can see how he wouldn’t think the genocide of the Tibetan people wouldn’t be a good enough reason to not go to the Olympics.
What a douche.
now now,, it’s not genocide,, thsoe folks are hooligans yaknow.
Reagan was at the '84 Olympics opening ceremony, held in Los Angeles, which was appropriate since we were the host country. Bush has no business going to China for this.
China sends more troops to restive areas ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1988895/posts
I don’t know, those guys look a lot more like Rodney King looters than Tianamin Square protesters. And it’s not like Tibet was ever a model of freedom anyway, before China it was a theocracy with a severe caste system. Maybe they were better off, but not by a lot.
And I don’t watch the Summer games anyway so you can keep that little ad hominem to yourself.
Yeah, the chinese consider any native of any country they invade to be hooligans.
I see you would have been on the Loyalist side in the American Revolution.
Our attendance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics prevented WWII. Why not?
I'm all for Bush going there so long as he stays there for good. Maybe we can fix the border while he is gone.
whatever happened to self-determination?
I guess you could almost equate their theocracy with the Taliban’s in a sense, huh?
btw, I don’t watch much of any Olympics these days either.
It didn’t prevent WWII but we did get to seriously face Hitler every time Jesse Owens did anything.
Going accomplishes nothing other than giving your athletes a chance to fulfill their dreams and embarrass the other side. Not going accomplishes nothing.
What does stealing from stores have to do with self-determination?
That’s the problem with all this, a lot of people are making the assumption that because China was involved the civilians must have been doing good things. That’s not how things works, sometimes both sides are bad guys.
The real history of the Tibetan theocracy isn’t that much nicer than the Taliban.
“What does stealing from stores have to do with self-determination?”
The same thing that dumping tea into a harbor did, it becomes a catalyst for something bigger.
sounds like multiple issues are being discussed here, it can muck up the discussion as a result, huh?.
better to just let China do as they see fit and ride roughshod on the protesters and hooligans.
wouldn’t be the first time.
It’s an excellent cover to give the Chinese leadership “what for” face-to-face without looking like you’re playing diplomatic footsie with commies.
No reason he should not go and support our athletes.
For those supporting a boycott — it would do no good, and it would hurt young people who have spent years in preparation for this chance to represent their country.
I’m glad we didn’t boycott the 1936 Olympics when Jesse Owens got a chance to show his stuff in Hitler’s Germany.
There will ALWAYS be evil and trouble in this world. Putting it aside for an occasional three weeks is not a bad thing.
Besides, the exposure that China is likely to get will not be good. I have several friends who have been there recently and describe the air pollution as being horrid. Shining a spotlight on China, making them see themselves as the rest of the world does, is not a bad thing.
What an absolutely stupid and classless comment.
Sorry but those aren’t the same. There’s a difference between pointed vandalism to hose the tax man and theft.
EVERYTHING the Chinese do or don’t do is about politics. How is it that I know that and the President of the US doesn’t? Sometimes that man is SO clueless.
wow you sure are quick with the pathetic dismissive comments. It’s a multi-issue world, if you can’t handle that then I suggest you stop paying attention to the news, your black and white need doesn’t match reality.
Reality is that looters are looters regardless of who they’re looting. Reality is that even though China’s government is doing bad thing in Tibet these were looters not protesters. Reality is that before China took over Tibet was ruled by a not pleasant theocracy that kept the vast majority of the population as chattel so anybody thinking that returning the old regime to Tibet will result in vast freedom for the people is seriously confused. Reality is just because I’m pointing the problems with the looters masquerading as protesters and the previous government of Tibet doesn’t mean I’m saying we should just let china do what they want. Reality is it’s a complex situation and your refusal to see it doesn’t simplify it.
Whut? Are you kidding me?
Reality sucks and your insultative manner does as well.
Have a nice day. Yes, let’s ignore the news. Great attitude. You are at FR, you know?
amazing, we free Kuwait but Tibet can go blow.
China is communist, everything is owned by the state. By destroying and looting the chinese shops the Tibetans are revolting against their invaders.
The only thing that isn’t the same about the two is your perception.
Again, those at the Boston tea party were looters by your definition as well. It doesn’t matter whether they were revolting over taxes or oppressive rule the two situations are parallel.
Nobody is talking about returning them to their old system, everyone is talking about them gaining their freedom.
The only people talking about Tibet returning to it’s old ways are people like you.
You die. Oh well, they are just Tibetans right?
It's their country, I expect they know better than you how to embarrass their Chinese tormentors.
Good post!! Thanks.
From what I have been reading, the Chinese are trying to slowly obliterate their culture. Kind of like the Kosovo
thing with the Serbs. Destroy places of worship, bring in other ethnic groups, and hope the original culture and ethnicity kind of dies out or is so blended over time
that it no longer exists.
Reality does suck. You started with the insulting manner, if you don’t like it you shouldn’t do it.
I’m not saying let’s ignore the news, I’m saying YOU should ignore the news because it’s obvious you can’t handle the fact that news is about a complicated world.
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