Bush Carries to China A Delicate Diplomacy

In the privacy of the Yellow Oval Room in the White House residence overlooking the Washington Monument one day last week, President Bush hosted one of China's archenemies. The Dalai Lama gave him a white scarf called a khata as a token of respect. Bush served tea and sipped from a glass of water. They talked about the continuing plight of Tibet.

But the visit was not put on the president's advance public schedule. No journalists were invited in to record the moment, as at the end of many Bush meetings. The president made no public comments about Tibet. The White House released an official photograph but did not post it on the home page of its Web site along with the other events of his day.

The delicate diplomatic dance illustrated Bush's complex relationship with China as he leaves tomorrow on his first trip to Asia since reelection. Meeting with the spiritual leader of the repressed Tibetan people just before heading to Beijing was intended to send a signal about Bush's commitment to human rights in the world's most populous country. Yet the effort to keep the session essentially out of public view was intended to avoid insulting his soon-to-be hosts.

Perhaps no country presents a greater challenge to the vision Bush outlined in his second inaugural address than China. As he took the oath in January, Bush made it the mission of his presidency to promote freedom and democracy around the world, vowing to confront "every ruler and every nation" and predicate U.S. relations with other governments on how they treat their own people.

Yet when it comes to China, home of 1.3 billion people living under communist rule, Bush and his administration seem more animated by economic and security issues. In public at least, the Bush team's discussion of democracy and human rights in China often is muted in soft tones and quickly dispensed with to move on to other matters.

"It's definitely become one of the pillars of what the president is willing to do when it comes to China," said John Ackerly, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, who credits Bush for pushing human rights. "But the question is always: How much is the administration really invested in it? How hard do they really push? Raising it with the Chinese leadership is one thing. Really pushing it is another. And the Chinese leadership has been getting some mixed messages."

Bush is to talk about the importance of freedom during a speech not in China but at the first stop of his week-long trip, in Kyoto, Japan. After Kyoto, Bush flies to Pusan, South Korea, for the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC. He visits China after that to sit down with President Hu Jintao, and then stops in Mongolia.

When it comes to China, where his father served as ambassador in the 1970s, Bush is pulled by competing factions within his own political coalition. A powerful alliance of neoconservatives and Christian conservatives urges him to take on Chinese tyranny, particularly oppression of religion. Yet the president seems more influenced by his party's business wing, which sees great opportunity and wants to integrate China into the international community.

"Economics is the main thing now," said James R. Lilley, ambassador to Beijing under President George H.W. Bush. "Democracy for China? Don't hold your breath."

Lilley noted that the two main players in China policy now are Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, the former trade representative, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has challenged China's secretive military spending. "Zoellick knows economics and he's taken the lead, with Rumsfeld standing in the corner with a baseball bat."

The day before Bush met with the Dalai Lama, he gave an interview to Phoenix Television, a Hong Kong station, which asked what he wanted to address while in China. The president raised trade, intellectual property rights, terrorism, North Korea, Iran and energy. He made no mention of freedom or democracy.

Bush shows no such reticence with nations less friendly to the United States. In a speech last Friday, for instance, Bush was stark about the "authoritarian regime" in Syria, with a population of 18 million, barely 1 percent of China's. Freedom House has given both countries the lowest possible ranking for political rights. The difference reflects the many levels in which China is important to the United States. The two countries do $230 billion in trade a year, U.S. businesses lose enormous money from pirated DVDs and software, and Washington relies on Beijing to pressure North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.