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Bush's Asia Trip Meets Low Expectations
President Bush rides with members of the Chinese Olympic cycling team on the Laoshan Olympic Mountain Bike Course in Beijing. Bush as traveler, C1.
(By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press)
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Still, Bush did not directly raise the list with Hu, according to U.S. and Chinese officials, and his words on human rights were muted. "Honestly, human rights issues made up a tiny, tiny, tiny part of the meeting between the leaders of the two countries," said Kong Quan, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.
The government did keep a promise to allow news coverage of Bush bicycling with Chinese Olympic athletes. But state television refrained from reporting even the mild comments Bush made encouraging China "to continue making the historic transition to greater freedom" during a session with Hu, much less his appearance at a church urging greater religious freedom.
Instead, the national evening news led with extended footage of a welcome ceremony during which Bush walked past a Chinese military guard and an account of his meetings with Hu and Wen that focused on Bush's desire for good relations with China and his support for maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. The only time viewers heard Bush's voice was during a segment on his visit with the Olympic athletes as he joked with them to "take it easy" on him.
Bush's words received far less coverage on state television than during his last trip here in February 2002, when the government allowed live broadcasts of a speech to university students and a 37-minute news conference with then-President Jiang Zemin. This time, reporters were not even allowed to ask questions during Bush's appearance with Hu. Bush later met with reporters alone to take questions.
The meeting was Bush's fifth with Hu and the first in Beijing since the Chinese leader was named to head the ruling Communist Party in late 2002. Aides said the relationship was developing. The meeting was "more comfortable" with "less set-piece reading of points," according to an administration official.
The Bush team is investing in Hu as the best option within the Chinese establishment even though he has presided over a crackdown on the media, religion, academia and other elements of civil society. "He's no Thomas Jefferson," the official acknowledged, "but there are a lot of people in the political world who are more reactionary."
Bush was particularly struck by Hu's description in New York of the challenges entailed in managing a nation of 1.3 billion, including mass unemployment, rising social unrest and a widening income gap, officials said. Hu's vision of "peaceful development" raising the prosperity of his people impressed Bush, they added.
The conversation will continue early next year when Hu comes to Washington for a trip making up for one canceled in September because of Hurricane Katrina. And for Bush, aides insisted, that was the real achievement of this trip.
"China is a big, growing, strong country," the president said. "And it's very important for me to maintain a good working relationship with the leadership here."
Correspondent Anthony Faiola in Tokyo contributed to this report.
