Bush: "Really Hard To Tell" If China Has Improved Civil Rights

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Aug. 4 -- Three days before he is set to arrive in Beijing for the Olympics, President Bush offered a mixed assessment of China's role in the world, praising its efforts to curb the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, expressing disappointment about its recent move to help scuttle global trade talks, and saying that it is "really hard to tell" whether human rights in China have improved over the past eight years.

Bush said that he speaks candidly with Chinese President Hu Jintao about human rights, particularly religious freedom, and that he has shared his religious beliefs with Hu and Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, urging them to lift restrictions on underground churches.

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Comments

[truthynesslover]

Its really hard to" tell " because we now have Chinese masters{american corporations} calling the shots!WE let them own us and now we have to bend over and take it.Good job george!
'

[Redrover666]

Anyone old enough to have been able to read a newspaper ten years ago is perfectly aware that this country has been selling itself to China for some time. I seem to remember quite clearly our last democratic President openly selling himself to China. So the silly blame Bush rants don't cut the mustard nor are they remotely realistic.

As to journalists being beaten. I've seen that advocated here regarding news outlets and commentators whom you gentle folks consider conservatively biased,.

[telebob59]

Dubya, along with most nearly every Repub official at the federal level have paid the most disingenuous lip service to human rights around the globe ever since their old punching bag Jimmy Carter made it his business as President to ever make it an issue on the geopolitical stage 30 years ago. The exceptions to this co-opting of Carter's initiative are rare birds indeed (and by exceptions, I'm not referring to the sanctimonious ones who distorted Carter's principle and appropriated it for their own strident anti-abortion rights arguments).

[JRandomPoster]

Well, if you use the United States as the baseline, under Bush's "leadership", one might argue that China has improved.

[GeoLee]

I suppose with an IQ in the stupid range it WOULD be hard to tell. That is the only way I could explain why he cannot see what is directly in front of his face...or else $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ signs.

[tel8034]

It's also hard for Bush to tell if torture is going on in Gitmo.

[LiberTLover]

He could try opening his eyes. Might have worked for Katrina too. And the Iraq war. And the economy....oh never mind, it is clearly asking too much. My bad.

[lvdragonlady]

Hey shrubie, if you can not tell, then they probably haven't.

clueless somewhere in china

[doofmann02]

These athletes are obviously out to descredit China's image and wage ideological warfare:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/sports/olympics/06masks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[StillAmused]

It's really hard for him to tell if his shoe laces are actually tied.

[darthdarcy]

Hard to tell..?

After what they just did in Tibet or what's going on in Mayamar/Burma or Darfur...?

What's hard to tell Georgie boy...?

They ran the ministers and church groups out of town who wanted to meet with you, those they didn't arrest...

Is that so hard to tell...

[chumleypotts]

Chinese authorities have apologized for the roughing up incident. End of story. Let's move on.

[esquire07]

The US can learn alot from the Chinese Police State.... I am sure that many of the Chinese methods will be implemented in the US after the next False Flas attack by Cheney and his criminals at CIA and Pentagon.

[mergina]

China is a giant polluting violator of human rights. Kind of an abomination as a matter of fact. This PRETTY SHOW they are putting on is just a paint job.

[BlueStateMan]

They also have our economy by the balls.

[MyOwnPerson]

And will continue to do so until we stop being such consumers and start to produce again. Unfortunately, to produce we have to compete against other nations with lower labor costs. This means people will actually have to accept $5 for a $5 job. Imagine that?!?

[truthynesslover]

Thats because china is an american corporation with a chinese flag on it.Its corporat americas wet dream,no regulation, slave labor,corruption is rampant.What more could you want?

[tippy33]

President Bush just landed in South Korea and was greeted by thousands of protesters. CNN reported this briefly then the story disappeared. Why isn't Huff post on this for us?

[sassafra]

well george, the reason you think it's hard to tell is that you and china are going in opposite directions on the old civil liberties road.