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.
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