The President and Beijing
ICC Note:
President Bush's plans for his controversial trip to China to attend the Olympic Games this month have been reportedly thwarted and re-routed numerous times. Aides originally wanted him to worship a Chinese house church, but Chinese authorities ruled it out. Other pastors, lawyers, and political activists he considered meeting have either been ordered to leave Beijing or arrested. The idea of a speech on human rights in China was similarly rejected as potentially insulting to the president's hosts.
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8/5/08 China (NYTimes) Aides organizing President Bush’s trip to China for the Olympics considered having him worship at a house church, one of the underground religious institutions that routinely face official harassment, but the Chinese authorities ruled it out.
Pastors, lawyers and other political activists whom Mr. Bush considered meeting in Beijing as a signal of support have instead been ordered by the Chinese authorities to leave the city during the president’s visit. Scores of others have been arrested.
The idea of giving a Reaganesque “tear down this wall” speech on human rights in China — as members of Congress and others are calling for Mr. Bush to do — has been abandoned as potentially insulting to the president’s hosts, one senior administration official said. Besides, most Chinese would probably not see or hear it, because of state control of the news media.
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The White House’s plans have been thwarted by Chinese objections, by security issues and by sensitivities that the administration chose not to upset, even as Mr. Bush faced criticism from human-rights campaigners and lawmakers here in Washington for not doing and saying more.
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While he evidently will not worship at an underground church, Mr. Bush does plan to attend services on Sunday at the Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Church, one of the most prominent of those officially registered by the government.
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Referring to the decision to visit an authorized church, he said: “It’s not an affirmation of religious freedom. It’s an affirmation of government-controlled religion.”
The senior administration official who discussed the trip did not dispute that Chinese objections had shaped the president’s itinerary. “They’re going to make it difficult for the meetings to take place,” the official said, referring to Chinese efforts to keep dissidents away from the president. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivities surrounding the trip.
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The problem for Mr. Bush politically is that the Chinese authorities have intensified pressure on dissidents and others as the Games approach, jailing hundreds in an apparent effort to avoid any demonstrations, according to reports by advocacy groups like Freedom House and Amnesty International.
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