US election sharpens China Olympic debate
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House race is reverberating with a grass-roots backlash over China's crackdown in Tibet, and is in turn hiking pressure on President George W. Bush to skip the start of the Beijing Olympics.
Republican presidential pick John McCain Thursday completed the trio of White House hopefuls to raise the specter of a presidential boycott of the Games' showpiece opening, meant to celebrate China's emergence as a world power.
Bush has so far resisted calls for him to follow several other world leaders and declare outright that he will skip the opening ceremony, but the statement by his Republican heir apparent McCain further raised political temperatures.
"I believe President Bush should evaluate his participation in the ceremonies surrounding the Olympics and, based on Chinese actions, decide whether it is appropriate to attend," McCain said in a statement.
"If Chinese policies and practices do not change, I would not attend the opening ceremonies."
McCain's comments were the latest sign of how presidential candidates, who face ordinary voters every day, are more exposed to quick shifts in grass-roots opinion than their Washington-based brethren.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had led the charge, following earlier campaign spats with China over trade and faulty consumer goods, demanding Bush stay away from the ceremony.
"The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for presidential leadership," Clinton said.
"At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government," the former first lady added.
Last week, Clinton's rival Barack Obama said he was in "two-minds" over whether the United States should play a full role in the Olympics, again citing Tibet and Darfur.
By Wednesday, his position had significantly hardened.
"If the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security, and human rights of the Tibetan people, then the president should boycott the opening ceremonies," he said in a statement.
Obama said in the statement, carried by a Time magazine website, that a decision on boycotting the opening however should be made closer to the Games.
Some commentators had suggested before the Illinois senator's statement that he might be reticent to call for an all-out boycott, mindful of possible political fallout over his home city Chicago's bid for the 2016 Games.
Bush publicly chafed on Wednesday at the mounting calls for him to skip the ceremony -- but was careful to keep his options open.
"Nobody needs to tell old George Bush that he needs to bring religious freedom to the doorstep of the Chinese, because I've done that now for -- I'm on my eighth year doing it," he told EWTN television, a Catholic network.
"I've talked about freedom of religion every time I visited with them. I've talked about Darfur. I've talked about Burma. I've talked about the Dalai Lama. I don't need the Olympics to express my position."
Rising concern in the United States over the Beijing Olympics mirrored global opinion, as protests disrupted the Olympic torch relay in Greece, London, Paris and San Francisco.
On Thursday aides to United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said he was not going to attend the opening ceremony, but insisted his decision was not linked to the unrest in Tibet.
UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a press briefing that the secretary general had told the Chinese government "some months ago that he may not be in a position to accept the invitation ... due to scheduling issues."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said Wednesday that he would also be absent from the opening, but said he had never intended to be there.
Even before the Olympic furor, China had been a popular target of 2008 candidates, especially Democrats, keen to win favor with blue-collar voters who believe low-wage Chinese factories have pulled their jobs abroad.
"China bashing" has been a staple of past US campaigns but the candidate that wins often tempers the rhetoric as geopolitical concerns take on more importance once the White House is secured.
