Rights Issue Looms as Bush Heads to China

In a letter last week seeking support for the resolution, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cited Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing. "Whether one agrees or disagrees with this decision, it is clear that the President must not pass up this opportunity to make a strong statement in support of human rights -- one of our central China policy goals," Berman wrote.

Bush has resisted efforts to use the Olympics as leverage with the Chinese to secure progress on human rights issues since he announced he was going to the games after meeting with Hu at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Sydney last September.

"I don't need the Olympics to express my concerns," Bush said in a news conference this month while attending the Group of Eight conference in Japan. "I've been doing so."

While in Beijing, Bush appears likely to attend the men basketball's game between the United States and China, as well as a baseball game.

Bush short-circuited the bureaucratic debate over his attendance at the Games by simply saying he wanted to go, according to several administration officials. The president's stance has earned him considerable points with the Chinese leadership, according to current and former administration officials, who say it has given Bush more credibility to press his arguments privately with Hu about the need for the Chinese to loosen restrictions on worship and political dissent.

"The Chinese will be so grateful that he said he was coming early and never wavered," said Victor Cha, a former Bush adviser on Asia who has written a book on the politics surrounding the 2008 Olympics.

Bush's position has disappointed many human rights activists and some of his strongest supporters, who say the White House has been relatively silent in the face of what they consider stepped-up Chinese repression as the Games draw near. Bush delivered a lengthy address Thursday on his "Freedom Agenda" around the world, but he devoted only one line to China.

Activists were also angry that Bush waited weeks before complaining about Chinese detention of a human rights lawyer the president met with last month at the White House. "This determined man has pledged: 'I'll continue to . . . seek justice for victims of rights abuses, and promote the rule of law in China,' " Bush said in a July 14 speech on religious liberty. "And my message to President Hu Jintao, when I last met him, was this: So long as there are those who want to fight for their liberty, the United States stands with them."

Wolf, normally a strong Bush supporter, said it is "painful" to consider the White House record on promoting freedom in China. "I don't give the administration high marks," he said in an interview, arguing that Bush needs to be more vocal. "I don't think there's been a persuasive case made from people inside the administration to the president why he should be out there. . . . I don't think [the policy] has been as effective as it could be."